Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

New Delhi, India. London, UK. Accra, Ghana NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic & Social Council of the United Nations 20Director Maja Daruwala International Advisory Co ission! "ash#al Ghai $ Chair#erson Me %ers! Alison Du&%ury Neville Linton 'ive( Maru )dward Morti er *a +(ud,eto -.G. 'er/hese Maja Daruwala )&ecutive Co ittee 0India1! -.G. 'er/hese $ Chair#erson Me %ers! -. K. Chandrashe(ar Nitin Desai 2ajahat 3a%i%ullah 3arivansh *anjoy 3a,ari(a Ka al Ku ar 4oona Muttreja 5u a 4al A.4. *hah Maja Daruwala

CHRI condemns police beating up women protestors in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh

16 anuar!, "#1$

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) strongly condemns the use of unwarranted and excessive force against women protestors by the Uttar radesh police! "n #onday$ %anuary &'$ in a shoc(ing incident$ police officials were caught on T) slapping and (ic(ing women protesting at an accident site in *iro+abad on the ,ational Highway! -tation House "fficer$ ra(ash .adav$ was taped baton/charging the women even as they ran to avoid the blows! The television footage evidences the use of what appears to amounts to force that is nothing short of criminal assault and should be treated as such! 0e urge that the usual practice of suspending offending personnel for a while until the storm of public concern passes should not be resorted to$ but that a disciplinary in1uiry must be conducted at the earliest alongside the necessary criminal cases! 0e urge that the involved personnel are not allowed to re2oin their duties and their powers suspended until the in1uiry is fully completed!

0e urge that the police leadership review the training given to the police and remind their cadres through official notification about how to use legal force to control public protest! eaceful protest is a democratic activity! The law allows the police to use only such force as is absolutely necessary! It must be minimum and proportional to )&ecutive Co ittee 0Ghana1! the situation and its use should be discontinued as soon as the danger to life and *a +(ud,eto 6 Chair#erson property subsides! Resorting to physical force in this situation with women protestors who did not present any (ind of threat is utterly condemnable and must count as a Me %ers! failure of policing!
A(oto A #aw Neville Linton -.G. 'er/hese Maja Daruwala

)&ecutive Co ittee 0UK1! Neville Linton 6 Chair#erson

Me %ers! 5ichard -ourne Meena(shi Dhar Dere( In/ra Claire Martin For %urther in%ormation please contact& *yed *har7uddin 8oe *ilva 'idya 'en(at Michael *tone Media and Co unications +77icer *ally$Ann 2ilson

3evi(a rasad of CHRI said 4The police seem to have no self restraint! They see everything as a challenge to their power and immediately resort to brute force5 the (ind intended to teach a lesson rather than sort out a situation! The police cannot be allowed to go on thin(ing that they can mete out corporal punishment to the public at will! The leadership must signal this won6t be tolerated and go about re/training the police about how to negotiate situations of crowd control without resorting to brute force as a weapon of first choice!7

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