India Centre for Human Rights and Law
CVOD Jain School, 4th floor
84 Samuel Street
Dongri, Mumbai 400 009
INDIA
Josh Paterson
I spent 2 months this summer working for the India Centre for Human Rights and Law in
Mumbai (formerly Bombay, by which name everyone still calls the city), India. The India
Centre is an organisation comprised of lawyers, social workers and activists who
tirelessly, and with very little compensation, pursue social justice and environmental
causes. A principal preoccupation is the advancement of economic, social and cultural
rights. I felt that it was sort of a nerve centre within Bombay’s activist community – it
was connected to so much of what is going on in the city and in India generally. That was
part of what made it so interesting – there were always a great many people working in
the community coming and going, and I was able to get a good feel for the variety of
social justice work being done. This work is increasing to a fever pitch this fall since the
World Social Forum will be hosted by Bombay this coming January. There are 4 staff
lawyers at the office whose principal work is to represent the unrepresented in criminal
proceedings, especially juvenile accused persons. These lawyers are also deeply involved
in law reform and public legal education activities. Among their focuses while I was at
the centre were the elimination of the death penalty, exposing police harassment of
disabled beggars and the fight against child prostitution. The Centre also publishes a
monthly magazine called Combat Law, which each month contains numerous articles by
scholars and lawyers on a particular contentious legal and social issue. Its environmental
wing has been very much involved with action against Dow Chemical, the successor to
Union Carbide whose negligence in a chemical leak caused the death of thousands of
people in Bhopal and the deformity of many more. Humjinsi, an Urdu word meaning
“same-sex”, is the India Centre’s support line for lesbians, a community that is extremely
marginalised in India. This section also runs a wide range of events aimed at the
emancipation of sexual minorities, including, this autumn, India’s first ever sexual
minority film festival with entries showing from all over the world. The Socio-Legal
Information Centre maintains an exhaustive library that is open to the entire NGO
community and which was an immense help to me as I conducted my research work.
Another branch of the Centre, the Indian People’s Tribunal for Human Rights and the
Environment, is composed of eminent legal scholars and jurists who sit to hear
complaints from individuals and communities whose rights they believe have been
trammelled by the state. This Tribunal is independent of government and the judiciary,
and brings to public attention human rights abuses that would not otherwise be noticed.
The legal work of the India Centre is supervised by two senior barristers, one of whom I
had the opportunity to work with directly. These are two of the leading lawyers in India’s
human rights bar. The India Centre represents the victim, a nineteen year-old girl, in what
is currently India’s most widely-publicised criminal and human rights case, one which
stems from the genocidal carnage against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. The victim’s
entire, large family was massacred before her eyes and she is the lead witness in the
state’s case against the alleged murderers. The Centre’s client, as well as other witnesses,
were threatened so as not give their testimony on the stand, and the accused parties were
all acquitted by the lower court. The case for a retrial is currently being heard at the
Supreme Court of India, with the India Centre arguing on the victim’s behalf. My work
mostly involved research on case law from jurisdictions other than India in support of the
victim’s case. Facing the facts of the tragic and horrific slaughter was unlike anything
I’ve dealt with before (and probably, hopefully, ever again). In addition to this, I
researched and wrote a comparative backgrounder on the legislated prohibitions against
hate speech in various countries, as part of the Centre’s law reform work. Other students
had opportunities to work on a number of other cases, and to attend court, if they wished,
with the Centre’s lawyers. Students also travel from time to time with members of the
Centre for workshops and other activities beyond Bombay.
Bombay itself, while sometimes chaotic (there are some 14 million people there), is a
perfectly liveable city in which it was a pleasure to live and work. I came to like the
crowds, and funnily enough, to really miss it when I returned to Toronto, which is
deserted by comparison. The co-workers at the India Centre were warm and welcoming –
I could not have imagined a better and more dedicated group of people with which to
work. Overall, it was a very good experience in which I learnt a great deal, and met many
interesting people. There were many opportunities to get involved in substantive work –
especially if a student seeks it out; it might not fall into one’s lap right away. I would
encourage any student who is interested in this region of the world to consider interning
at the India Centre for Human Rights and Law.