HUMAN RIGHTS OF PRISONERS - INDIA AND THE WORLD
One of the major issues championed fervently by the world human rights movement, is the recognition of human rights of prisoners, or more specifically, the recognition of the prisoner as a human being. Central to the quest for amelioration of the miserable condition of prisoners, is the logical assumption that the prison degrades and dehunmanizes a human being. Another implicit assumption, is that all prisoners are not necessarily born criminals but the brutally and barbarity of prison life, transform them into potential enemies of society, adding to the list of arch criminals dreaded and despised by all. George Bernard Shaw observed very rightly, that 'To punish a man retributively, you need to injure him. And men are not improved by injuries'. T. H. Green, the noted idealist thinker, was of the decided view, that when the state condemns a person to imprisonment, its aim should be to transform him into a good citizen through a radical reformation of his character. Green was decidedly in favour of reformatory punishment as a against retributive punishment. Michel Foucault, one of the leading Post-Modernist thinkers, in a scathing criticism of the inhumanities of prison life, says that 'those leaving prison, have more chance before, of going back to it ... The prison can not fail to produce delinquents. It does so by the very type of
Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System
Introduction Human rights are those minimal rights which every individual must have by virtue of his being a "member of human family", irrespective of any other consideration. They are based on mankind's demand for a life in which the inherent dignity of the human being will receive respect and protection. The concept of human rights is as old as the ancient doctrine of natural rights founded on natural law. The expression "human rights", however, is of recent origin emerging from post Second World War international charters and conventions. The first documentary use of the expression "human rights" could be seen in the Charter of the United Nations which was adopted at San Francisco on June 25, 1945. The United Nations, which arose like phoenix out of the ashes of the Second World War, declared the promotion and fostering of human rights and basic freedoms as one of its goals.
Analysis: The Agenda 2007 Proposals: Evolution or Revolution?
On 10 February 2004 the Commission published its proposal for the financial perspective 2007-2013. A week later it adopted the third report on economic and social cohesion. These two documents form the basis of the so-called ‘Agenda 2007 reforms’. They will be the greatest challenge for the enlarged EU after the intergovernmental conference, since they will determine the financial basis for EU policy-making until the middle of the next decade. The Agenda 2007 proposals certainly hint at courageous reforms, because they place a previously unheard-of emphasis on performance and quality. Under the proposals, structural operations should generate value for money, and the funds should focus on projects which generate added value at a European level. Overall the Commission’s proposals point in the right direction, because they balance, on the one hand, solidarity for the new Member States and weak regions in the old Member States with, on the other hand, investments in future tasks. Moreover, they constitute a paradigm shift. For the first time, the Common Agricultural Policy will not be the dominant expenditure category. Now it is up to the Member States to examine the proposals politically and find a compromise between sometimes very divergent interests. It is to be hoped that, during the debate over expenditure limits and division of funds, national interests do not outweigh European interests.