Tag Archives: HRF

Petition to Demand Release of Anti-Mining Activist , Writer, Film-maker Debaranjan Sarangi

Guest Post by Kamayani Bali Mahabal

Release Anti-Mining Activist , writer, film-maker - Debaranjan Sarangi

Debanjan Sarangi , , documentary film maker, writer and human rights activist  has been arrested in the early hours around 6.30 AM on March 18, 2016, by the Odisha police in Kuchaipad village in Kashipur block of Raygada district of Odisha. The defender has been arrested with the help of local police on the basis of a non-bailable warrant issued against him in a previous case of the year of 2005.

Debaranjan Sarangi along with others went to Kuchaipad village in Kashipur block of Raygada district of Odisha to participate in the FUNERAL  of activist late Mr. Laxman Majhi on March 16, 2016, evening. The rituals were completed on March 17, 2016. While other persons accompanied the defender returned on the same evening,

Debaranjan decided to stay back in the village for another day. In the early morning on March 18, 2016, he went out to a nearby riverside and while he was coming back, he saw two police men in civil clothes who came to him and took him. They did not allow him to change his clothes and forced him to go along with them in his lungi to the nearest police station at about 6.30 AM. Continue reading Petition to Demand Release of Anti-Mining Activist , Writer, Film-maker Debaranjan Sarangi

Understanding Indian human rights movements through the lives of two human rights defenders: Jinee Lokaneeta

Guest post by JINEE LOKANEETA

Watching Advocate alongside Democracy Dialogues: a Tribute to Balagopal, both by Deepa Dhanraj, made for a powerful experience for its remarkable documentation of human rights movements in Andhra through the lives of these two human rights defenders and the collectives that they were a part of whether it was Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, Human Rights Forum or People’s Union for Civil Liberties. There is of course a sharp sense of loss, since in the last few years we have lost both these incredible people but one was grateful for this effort to record and document their inspirational lives in such a beautiful manner. It also points to a further need for us to understand the connections of human rights groups to law, the relationship of human rights defenders to the courts, and their role in pushing for the realization of some of substantive aspects of the Indian Constitution in the process. Continue reading Understanding Indian human rights movements through the lives of two human rights defenders: Jinee Lokaneeta