Human Rights and Terrorism in India

In 1948 the UN codified human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the Indian Constitution which came into force on January 26 1950 the substance of this Declaration was codified as Fundamental Rights in the Constitution. Terrorism has a direct impact on human rights. The UN Security Council in its Resolution No. 1566 (2004) referred to terrorism as “criminal acts including against civilians committed with the intent to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons intimidate a population or compel Government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.” Today every nation is being called upon to resolve the conflicting demands of combating terrorism and of protecting human rights. The purpose of this book is to trace how the combating of terrorism can be harmonized with human and fundamental rights within reasonable restrictions that is permitted by the Constitution and upheld by the Supreme Court of India. The relationship between the two is not “linear” but “non-linear”. This endeavour is the purpose of the writing this book.