Full Coverage: Civil rights

30.12.2005 At least 14,000 minors were abducted by State and Maoists, of which 60 were killed during conflict, in the past ten months, says a report.The report presented by Child Workers in Nepal, (CWIN), at Kathmandu, Nepal said that all the minors were abducted and disappeared in between January 2005 to November, by the belligerent sides

29.12.2005 The former Secretary to the Government of India and Trustee of the Catalyst Trust, A.K. Venkataubramanian said that unless there is overwhelming participation from the citizens, the Right to Information Act would not succeed.

29.12.2005 Several hundred teachers of non-government primary school under the banner of Bangladesh Non-government Primary School Teachers' Association have passed the second consecutive day of their "fast unto death programme" demanding nationalisation of their schools and jobs.

28.12.2005 Dr Nilay Ranjan talks about the changing face of advocacy
at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial meeting. He mentions that the protest at the Hong Kong clearly passes on the message that the developing and least developing countries need more policy space in the negotiation process. If it is denied, people will protest in more violent ways because unfair trade directly affects the livelihood of the individual, which provokes them to raise their voice.

28.12.2005 The controversy that the 104th Constitutional Amendment Bill generated nearly obscured another significant Bill: The Commission for Protection of Child Rights Bill, 2005, which was passed in Parliament. It proposes to set up a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights both at the national level and Commissions at the State level.

27.12.2005 The Delhi government has linked up its grievance redressal machinery (the Public Grievances Commission, Delhi) to the newly-made Delhi Right to Information Act 2001 for the settlement of grievances. The linking up also led the government to take up systemic reforms based on suggestions from the people. Read these two documents made available by the Delhi Government's
Public Grievances Commission. Also see The Public Grievances Commission.

26.12.2005 Protesting that no action was taken against the minister indicted by the P.B. Sawant Commission, social activist Anna Hazare on Sunday started an indefinite fast at Yadavbaba Mandir in Ralegansiddhi here.

22.12.2005 The Constitution (104th) Amendment Bill, piloted by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, first such exercise by the United Progressive Alliance Government, was passed with a majority of the members present and voting. Of the 381 members present, 379 voted in its favour, one member voted against it and one member abstained

21.12.2005 Freedom House, the U.S. based non-profit organization, released on Monday, December 19, its Freedom in the World 2005 report. Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia were graded free countries, based on the criteria of political rights and civil liberties. Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina are only partially free countries.

21.12.2005 The recently launched Child Labour Helpline is proving quite effective in hyderabad. Based on complaints received on it, district officials swung into action and rescued seven children, including a boy, from bonded labour after raids on several houses in city.

20.12.2005 Mainstream education is the need of the hour for members of the Muslim community as this would ensure them better quality of life.This was the thrust of the 10-day meet of Muslim teachers, students, parents and members of the clergy, organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind across 50 centres in Gujarat.

20.12.2005 A new situation is emerging in India. Very rarely in history have we come across such a constellation: an ascending economic trajectory, rising foreign exchange reserves, reducing inflation rates, global recognition of technological competence, energy of 540 million youth, umbilical connectivities of 20 million people of Indian origin abroad, and the interest shown by developed countries to invest in our engineers and scientists, including in new R&D centres.

20.12.2005 Women Power Connect, a women's organisation, has decided to force the elected representatives and policy makers to make changes in government policies in favour of women and strictly implement the existing laws.

19.12.2005 Sugar industry associations from 11 major producing countries like India, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Guatemala, Argentina, Honduras have come under an umbrella called the Global Alliance for Sugar Trade Reforms (GASTR). GASTR members held a mee ting on the sidelines of the WTO ministerial at Hong Kong and have outlined their strategy.

16.12.2005 The Citizens Pact for the SEE presented Best Visa Queue Stories collection of 20 stories of young people from the region, irrated by the fact that they can’t travel to the EU without a visa.

09.12.2005 The United Nations Organisation will focus on spreading awareness of the eight point Millennium Development Goals in 2006 as the pace of implementation of the goals has been slow worldwide during the past five years.

08.12.2005 The Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania - CRCA, a major child-rights organisation in the country, opened on 6 December 2005 the series of Workshops on Child Labour issue in Albania, which are organised under the programme 'Stop Child Labour in Albania', funded by The Olof Palme International Center in Sweden.

08.12.2005 The Iraqi government denies allegations that it is stepping up military operations so as to keep Sunni voters away from the polls.

07.12.2005 France's High Court has overturned a decision by the Transport Ministry to ban a French Sikh from wearing a Turban in his drivers license photo. The ruling prevents an attempt "by over-zealous administrators" to extend the French Turban ban in schools into other areas, says a Sikh group promoting tolerance and development.