Rugged Road to Justice A Social Audit of State Human Rights Commissions in India. Volume-I
Edited By Harsh Dobhal & Mathew Jacob
The NHRC and SHRCs in India are currently in a grave state of disarray. The hopes of the millions of
people who were advocating for these commissions have been turned into despair. While many have already
given up the hope of any improvement in the functioning of these commissions and do not want
to engage with these institutions, there are yet a large number of activists, lawyers and social workers
who for years have constantly engaged themselves with the commissions in an attempt to seek justice,
work and campaign towards streamline their functioning and to help make them more effective.
The idea of the IPT has been the same; to monitor and strengthen the functioning of the commissions.
These IPTs clearly depict a representative sample from each state of the voices of victims of
human rights violation and the responses of the commissions. Examining the testimonies of victims
from each state will give a clear idea of the functioning of these commissions. The jury reports are also
indicative of the fact that reforms are needed in the functioning of these commissions by the way of
amendment to the Act and by the way of proper compliance with the current provisions in the Act.
With this attempt, we are hopeful that the idea of a strong commission is possible, whereby the
commissions take strong cognisance of their current state of affairs and take necessary actions to protect
and promote human rights effectively and efficiently.