Aizawl, Feb. 24: Human Rights and Law, a local NGO, today said Mizoram?s rights record was nothing to be proud of. Addressing a news conference here today, the organisation?s president, Vanramchhuangi, said they have received several requests from outside to do something to improve the record as the state ranks third in rights violation in the country.
?Our friends from other groups have asked that we do something about what they see as gross human rights violations in the state as we have been ranked third next only to Gujarat and Kashmir by a television channel. They want academic institutions and NGOs to disseminate information and carry out awareness campaigns,? she said.
Talking of last year?s forced eviction of Myanmarese immigrants from the state, Vanramchhuangi said though the intention was good because foreigners cannot be accepted without proper papers, the way it was handled was not right.
?When we evicted the immigrants last year, we had taken the law into our own hands. What we should have done, instead, was let the government handle the situation as they were foreigners. Using mob-rule methods always brings humiliation and shame and nothing is actually achieved,? she said.
Condemning the practice of some NGO vigilantes in fining people who were found to be breaking the law, the rights panel chief said only the courts who have judicial powers can fine people.
She also said the way some local people act to curb lawlessness said the practice of erecting steel cages to house law- breakers was grossly irregular. She mentioned that the Aizawl district magistrate?s order to dismantle these cages has been ignored by some localities.
Vanramchhuangi also condemned the death penalty imposed in some cases by the public where a wrongdoer is lynched. ?The guilt of law-breakers and wrongdoers is to be decided by the courts, not the public.?
?Our reputation concerning human rights has taken a severe beating among the world?s rights activists because of the practice of mob rule in the state. What we need to do is to see that justice is carried out not by the public, but by legal means and through concerned authorities,? she said.