Challenging Torture

This year marks the 38th anniversary of the UN Convention Against Torture (UN CAT). Yet, the repeated instances of torture against women and minorities in India clearly show how impunity and political repression through silencing of voices have not ebbed in any measure. While India signed the UN CAT in 1997, it has not ratified it to date, though the apex court, NHRC, and Law Commission have duly recommended. The legally non-binding acceptance of the UN CAT acts as a facade, as authorities enjoy legal impunity. This has led to a backsliding of democratic principles as these principles are pushed to the background, almost rendered invisible. Due to torture becoming a more and more routinised form of citizen repression, India has been labelled as a “Flawed Democracy.”

Torture remains a widespread and deeply entrenched practice across India. Despite legal safeguards and institutional mandates, torture continues to be used not only as a tool of investigation, but also as a form of punishment, intimidation and social control, disproportionately targeting marginalised communities.

Institutionalised forms of torture in India have seen a steady and recorded uptick through arbitrary arrest and imprisonment under draconian laws like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), harassment of youth, construction of ad hoc detention centres, illegal push-back of Indian citizens into Bangladesh amongst many other actions that have lent to a gross and systemic violation of human rights and constitutionally guaranteed rights. This form of state-sponsored and political violence has also led to an atmosphere of fear psychosis amongst already marginalised communities and constitutes a violation of Article 21 (Right to Life and Liberty) of the Indian Constitution.

Without the abolition of torture, over half the citizenry–comprising, but not limited to, women and religious and caste minorities–risk being subjected to abuse with impunity in India. Moreover, as torture at the hands of the police remains rampant, impunity also plagues institutional mechanisms such as the National Human Rights Commission and the other 175 Human Rights Institutes (HRIs) in India, which have become an unreliable, unresponsive, and dysfunctional body. The ineffective redress in instances of torture and the lack of upholding of constitutionally guaranteed and international human rights reflect a severe lack of accountability. The lack of accountable legal mechanisms negatively impacts efforts to prevent and end torture, hold violators and those in positions of reproducing torture accountable, and create effective channels for redress of torture through appropriate compensation, support, and guarantees of non-repetition to those who have been affected. In India, there is no mechanism to protect the victims, survivors and witnesses in torture cases. The Government of India has not implemented the Istanbul Protocol for medical examination of victims of torture either.

Today as the world marks International Day [June 26] in Support of Victims of Torture, human rights bodies must stand in solidarity with all survivors of torture in India and across the world. There should be an end to torture and all forms of state violence, a genuine commitment to the protection of constitutional rights and human rights, and accountability at every step to uphold peace in the literal sense.

[Contributed by Kirity Roy, Secretary, MASUM. 26th June, 2025]

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 4, Jul 20 - 26, 2025