New acts of harassment against Ms. Indira Jaising, Mr. Anand Grover and the Lawyers Collective

Harassment

India
May 16, 2019

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership ofthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, requests your urgentintervention in the following situation in India.

Brief description of the situation:

TheObservatory has been informed by reliable sources about new acts of harassmentagainst Ms. Indira Jaising and Mr. Anand Grover, human rights lawyers andfounders of the Indian NGO Lawyers Collective. Both Ms. Jaising and Mr. Groverare internationally renowned human right professionals who have a long historyof engaging with the United Nations (UN) system. Ms. Jaising is a former memberof the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)and Mr. Grover is a former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.Lawyers Collective is a prominent public interest service provider in India with an established record of settinghigh standards in human rights advocacy, legal aid and litigation.

According to the information received, on May 8, 2019, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice ofIndia (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice in a petition filed on May 6 by anorganisation called ‘Lawyers Voice.’ The petition demandedthat the Government of India initiate criminal proceedings against Lawyers Collective, Ms. Jaising, and Mr. Grover for the alleged misuse of foreign funding underthe 2010 Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

The bench issued the notice despite the fact that thepetition did not provide any supporting information. The Observatory furtherrecalls that Lawyers Collective’s FCRA was suspended and subsequently cancelledin 2016 - a measure that is being challengedby Lawyers Collective beforethe Bombay High Court (see background information).

Ms. Jaising recently expressed strong criticism regarding the handlingof proceedings in a case that involves allegations of sexual harassment against CJI Ranjan Gogoiby a former Supreme Court employee.

TheObservatory expresses its deepest concern for the harassment against LawyersCollective, Ms. Indira Jaising and Mr.Anand Grover and condemns the use of FCRA to impede legitimate activities ofhuman rights organisations.

TheObservatory calls upon the Indian authorities to put an end to all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level,against them and to amend FRCA in a manner that is consistentwith international standards of freedom of association, including Article 22 ofthe International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Background information:

On June 3, 2016, the Ministry of Home Affairs suspended the FCRAregistration of Lawyers Collective. In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairsleaked the suspension notice to the press before Lawyers Collective received acopy of it. This suspension of the FCRA registration was based on allegationsthat Lawyers Collective, in particular Ms.Jaising and Mr. Grover, violated FCRAregulations.

These allegations include the following violations of FCRA regulations:a) remunerations paid by Lawyers Collective to Ms. Jaising for servicesprovided by her while she was also serving as a government servant (as theAdditional Solicitor General of India); b) the reimbursement of expenses fortelephone and internet incurred by Mr. Grover while he was serving as the UNSpecial Rapporteur on the Right to Health; c) and that Lawyers Collective usedfunds it had received through the FCRA to organise dharnas[1]and rallies. Lawyers Collective has denied all the aforementioned allegations.

In January 2017, the Bombay High Court passedan interim order unfreezing the domestic and non-FCRA bank accounts of LawyersCollective. The Court ruled that while the Government of India had powers underthe FCRA to “regulate or, even prevent the acceptance of foreign funds by anassociation, the Act did not provide for a government to stifle the veryfunctioning of individuals or associations."

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities in India, urging them to:

i. Put an endto all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level, against Lawyers Collective, Ms. IndiraJaising and Mr. Anand Grover, as well as of all human rights defenders in India and ensure that they are able to carry out their activitieswithout hindrance;

ii. Takesteps to repeal or comprehensively amend the Foreign Contribution RegulationAct, in line with the legal analysis of theformer UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly andof Association;

iii. Conform in all circumstances to the provisions of theDeclaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 by theUnited Nations General Assembly, in particular its Articles 1 and 12.2.;

iv. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rightsand fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rightsinstruments ratified by India.

Addresses:

· Mr. Shri NarendraDamodardas Modi, Prime Minister of India, Fax: + 91 11 2301 6857. E-mail: pmosb@pmo.nic.in

· Mr. Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of Home Affairs of India, Fax: +91 112309 2979. Email:dirfcra-mha@gov.in

· Mr. Rajiv Gauba,Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs of India, Email: hshso@nic.in

· Justice Shri H.L. Dattu, Chairperson of the National Human RightsCommission of India, Fax +91 11 2465 1329. Email: chairnhrc@nic.in

· Mr. Khaleel Ahmad,Focal Point on Human Rights Defenders, National Human Rights Commission ofIndia, Email: hrd-nhrc@nic.in

· H.E. Mr. Rajiv Kumar Chander, Ambassador, Permanent Mission ofIndia to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Fax: +41 22 906 86 96,Email: mission.india@ties.itu.int

· H.E. Mr. Manjeev SinghPuri, Embassy of India to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg inBrussels, Belgium, Fax: +32 2 6489638 / +32 2 6451869

Please also write to the diplomatic missions or embassies of India in yourrespective country as well as to the EU diplomatic missions or embassies inIndia.

***

Geneva-Paris, May 16, 2019

Kindly inform us of any action undertakenquoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by the WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH. The objective of this programmeis to intervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression against humanrights defenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights DefendersMechanism implemented by international civil society.

[1] A form of peaceful demonstration, consisting insitting and fasting at the doorstep of an offender until death or thedemand is granted. @font-face { font-family: Wingdings;}@font-face { font-family: "Cambria Math";}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }h1 { margin: 24pt 0cm 0.0001pt 21.6pt; text-indent: -21.6pt; break-after: avoid; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-weight: normal; }p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }span.Titre1Car { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }span.InternetLink { }span.ww-lieninternet { }span.Caractresdenotedebasdepage { vertical-align: super; }span.FootnoteAnchor { vertical-align: super; }span.NotedebasdepageCar { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; }div.WordSection1 { }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; }