Amnesty International India

Amnesty International India was a country unit of the Amnesty International network, and was part of a global movement promoting and defending human rights and dignity. In September 2020, Amnesty halted its operations in the country after all bank accounts of the organization were frozen. The organization called this as 'witch hunting' while the government of India said the organisation's FCRA had been declined one after other for 20 years by different governments in power as per the law[1]

Amnesty International India
TypeNGO
Location
Key people
Avinash Kumar (Executive Director)
Websiteamnesty.org.in

History

An Amnesty International office was first set up in India in Bihar in 1966.[2] Since then, the organization has worked on cases related torture, prisoners of conscience, abusive laws, women's rights, corporate accountability and other human rights violations.[3]

On 13 August 2016, Amnesty held an event in Bengaluru to discuss human rights violations in Kashmir, After the event, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad filed a first information report (FIR) against Amnesty India for being anti-national.[4] Amnesty India denied that the organization or its staff had been involved in any anti-national activities.[5][6] Sedition charges were pressed against Amnesty, but were dropped later on.[7]

On 15 November 2019 the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the offices of Amnesty International India in Bengaluru and New Delhi during an investigation into an alleged breach of foreign funding laws. In a statement issued by CBI, they said "It was alleged that the provision of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 and Indian Penal Code were contravened".[8][9] Aakar Patel was the chief of Amnesty in 2019.[10]

In 2020, Amnesty claimed that "reprisals" from the Indian government froze the organization's bank account, forcing it to lay off staff, suspend all campaign and research work, and otherwise halt operations in India.[11] The Ministry of Home Affairs claims that Amnesty violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) as "a significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA" and "owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well."[12]

On 16 February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate attached properties worth ₹17.66 crore (about $2.4 million, at that time) of the organisation in connection with an alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).[13]

Campaigns

Amnesty International India collaborates with Railway Protection Force, Western Railways in Mumbai to ensure female passengers’ right to safety.[14] It also ran a campaign to reduce the number of under-trials in jails in India.[15] Some of Amnesty India's campaigns include seeking justice for the victims in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots[16][17][18] as well as opposing the use of the death penalty in India.[19][20][21]

References
  1. "Amnesty official alleges organisation's activities halted in India due to freezing of its accounts". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  2. Desai, Akshayakumar Ramanlal (1 January 1986). Violation of Democratic Rights in India. Popular Prakashan. ISBN 9780861321308 – via Google Books.
  3. "India: Urgent investigation needed after rape suspects 'extrajudicially executed'". www.amnesty.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  4. "Amnesty accused of sedition over Kashmir event in Bangalore". BBC News. 16 August 2016.
  5. "Amnesty International India's response to complaint filed by ABVP - Amnesty International India".
  6. "Amnesty row: Human rights do not stand in the way of India's ambitions". Hindustan Times. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  7. "Ex Amnesty India Chief Aakar Patel, Stopped At Airport, Goes To Court". NDTV.com. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  8. "Amnesty International offices in India raided by federal police". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  9. "CBI raids Amnesty India offices in Bengaluru and New Delhi". The Economic Times. 2019-11-16. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  10. "Drop Airport Alert Against Ex Amnesty India Chief, Apologise: Court To CBI". NDTV.com. 7 April 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  11. "Amnesty International to halt India operations". BBC News. 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  12. "Human Rights cannot be an excuse for defying the law of the land: MHA on Amnesty International". DD News. 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  13. "ED attaches properties worth ₹17.66 crore of Amnesty International India". 16 February 2021.
  14. "Measures by Western Railway: Platforms to play special jingles for women safety". The Indian Express. 30 June 2016.
  15. Gandhi, Divya. "65% of prisoners in India are undertrials". The Hindu.
  16. "Amnesty International Slams Slow Progress Probe". 6 December 2016.
  17. "Amnesty Urges Centre to Speed Up 1984 Massacre Cases".
  18. "1984 anti-Sikh riots: Calls for justice in India".
  19. "End the Death Penalty - Amnesty International India".
  20. Ghosh, Anjali (2009). India's Foreign Policy. Pearson Education India. p. 220. ISBN 9788131710258.
  21. Burke, Jason (2015-07-30). "Yakub Memon: India carries out execution over 1993 bomb attacks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
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