NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Rangnath Misra attributes the human right violations by the state agencies to the virtual non-existence of a "human right culture."

A 4-year stint as the first chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has given him an insight to take up the cause of the human rights as a life-time mission.

He says he could not complete many plans he envisaged as the NHRC chairman but he continues to pursue them by networking with various institutions and organisations that can help in inculcating the new culture.

As a Rajya Sabha member of the Congress from Orissa since last year, he successfully persuaded Congress President Sonia Gandhi to carve out a separate Human Rights Department in the AICC under his chairmanship.

Justice Misra says the human right violations are not limited to only the state institutions. There have been many instances of violations taking place within the family, in the public offices, in the community, in educational institutions and of course with the political parties.

The former Chief Justice says his department would look for the human right violations first within the Congress and would bring them to the notice of the disciplinary committee to check them for the sake of strengthening the party.

He is now busy creating a 3-tier network within the Congress and also inviting the NGOs(non-government organisations) fighting against the human right violations for a joint thrust to promote human rights.

He says the Congress has its workers in each and every nook and corner of the country and as such it can provide a force that helps realise his dream of quickly building up a human right culture in the country.

Within the next one month, he hopes to have the state and district level human right departments in their place. He says he has completed discussions with the PCC presidents and now awaits the formal approval of the PCCs for setting up these departments under them which would also have one member each from the Youth Congress and the Mahila Congress. There shall be one person each also at the lowest level of village level party committees to report the human right violations.

Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh would be the first to have these human right departments since all spadework has been completed and what remains was only the announcement by the respective PCC presidents.

Misra says he has also received response from more than 70 NGOs who showed interest in coordinating with the Congress in its efforts under his leadership to promote human rights.

As the NHRC chairman, he had persuaded the Indian Army to distribute to all its ranks, and particularly the lower ranks, the cards with 10 "do’s" of human rights printed on one side and 10 "don’ts" on the other side.

Misra says those cards played wonder as they helped the Indian soldiers regulate their thinking and that in turn regulated their actions. He personally verified the impact by visiting the troops and was pleased to find that they were all put on tracks.

The AICC Human Rights Department has already brought out copies of the pocket-sized booklet of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for circulation to the party members throughout the country as Justice Misra says the charity has to begin from home.

There are a lot of human right violations within the political parties itself. Justice Misra says as the NHRC chairman he had two to three sessions with political parties to point out the need for stopping such violations and some semblance of discipline. The Congress has, however, now become the first party to have a department that exclusively looks after the human rights.

With a twinkle of eye movements, Justice Misra says the AICC headquarters is itself full of human rights violations and that is why he took permission of the Congress President to let him set up the AICC Human Rights Department to function from his residence itself.

Justice Misra says the human rights should be imbibed in the minds of children right from the tender age, first by the families and then by the school teachers. "The child should know better about his duties than the rights. The self-imposed duties work like the railway track. You can’t go beyond it. You have to follow what your track is."

As NHRC chairman, he persuaded the NCERT to hold around a dozen regional meetings that gave him opportunity to interact with more than 25,000 teachers. The NCERT is incorporating the human rights in its school books and Justice Misra says he continues to remain in live touch with it to boost human rights education in schools.

Misra narrates how an impression had gone around when the NHRC was set up by the Centre under his chairmanship that it would only suppress human rights and whitewash the wrongs done by the state agencies. He says his actions, however, convinced everyone and the NHRC started getting complaints even from the militant outfits in the states like Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Asked if the Kashmir militants fighting for their cause, irrespective of whether being right or wrong, can be held guilty of the human right violations as much as the charge is levelled on the Indian forces, Justice Misra sought to answer by citing a case that came before the NHRC from Andhra Pradesh in 1996. A bright barrister appeared with complaint of the human right crimes against the militant PWG activists. The NHRC held that these activists certainly have the human rights, but once they violate the human rights of others, others are entitled to retaliate in self-protection. END.