VIGIL INDIA PUBLICATIONS

“Vigil India” was an occasional publication of Vigil India Movement published three to four times in a year highlighting different human rights issues. These include the Golden jubilee of UDHR, UN efforts to promote human rights, activities of Institute of Human Rights, sexual harassment at work place, environment pollution by Grasim Factory, Independence of judiciary, media’s neglect of weaker sections and freedom of religion. 

This is a monthly compilation of human rights news published in Indian periodicals.  This publication is well received by the human rights community.  An electronic version of the same is available on the links http://www.vigilindia.info/,  http://www.vigilindia.org/

1. International Bill of Human Rights

We published three booklets as study materials for the workshops of Institute of Human Rights.  The first of the series on International Bill of Human Rights comprises of the UDHR, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights with a forward from Mr. V. I. Itty, General Secretary.

2. Globalization And Its Impact On Human Rights (Dr. Mathews George Chunakara)

The second book is on Globalization and its impact on Human Rights written by Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, Hon. Director of VIM.  India along with other countries embarked on a programme of globalization and liberalization resulting in a complicated situation and giving rise to several problems.

3. Human Rights Indian Values Ancient And Modern (Justice M. Rama Jois)

The third book is a lecture delivered by Justice M Rama Jois, former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, at Bharathiya Vidhya Bhavan, Bangalore under the auspicious of VIM on August 10, 1999.  It comprehensively covers the subject showing that from ancient times Indian tradition has espoused the cause of human rights in all spheres of life going into meticulous details including rights of persons in captivity, rights of those defeated in war, rights of women and the rights of labourers and farmers.

The Board of Trustees of VIM has decided to publish Human Rights annual.  The first issue of the annual was published in 2000.  16 topics were covered in the volume including human rights situation in India an overview, economic, social and cultural rights, civil and political rights, environmental rights, rights of women, children, Adivasis and minorities.  Articles on each topic present factual information as well as analysis of the specific human rights situation.  The contributors include, Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon, Mr. Justice H Suresh, Ms. Teesta Setalvad, Mr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Mr. Kuldip Nayar, Ms. Bhargavi Nagaraja, Dr. P. Sivanandan, Prof. Iqbal A. Ansari, Mr. Ravi Nair, Dr. K. C. Sunny, Ms. Sarasu Esther Thomas, Ms. Yamini Krishnamurthy, Dr. John Samuel and Prof. M. K. Ramesh.

Human Rights 2001 is a compendium of articles and reports on the human rights situation in India.  The Governor of Kerala, Mr. Justice Sukhdev Singh Kang formally released Human Rights 2001.