No physical or mental torture, Manipur HRC writes to DGP

The Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has written to the Director General of Police and the Director of Social Welfare Department prohibiting physical and mental torture or any form of human rights violation under any circumstances.

 This part of the guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to be followed while running and operating Drug De-Addiction Centres in the State.

The new guidelines directed all NGOs and De-addiction centres to mandatorily register themselves under the existing Act of the Parliament or State Assembly or any other regulation framed for this purposes and Social Welfare Department should examined the legal documents and registration certificate of the De-addiction centre/rehabilitation centre and 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) are to be provided after all the required documents are thoroughly examined along with space, sanitation, hygiene etc, MHRC said in a letter.

Infrastructure and manpower of the De-addiction/rehabilitation centres are to be taken into consideration in order to accommodate inmates and their effective treatment and no centres are to be allowed to treat patients beyond their treatment capacity; in case of any referral from the Police, local clubs, Meira Paibis etc other than the parent or guardian, the patient/drug user should be produced before an Executive Magistrate or police officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and free, prior and informed consent of the individual should be taken before his/her admission to any centre and if the individual in question is a minor, then the same consent of the parents/guardians are to be taken, added the letter.

The new guidelines were provided after the Commission had organised a consultation on August 28, 2020 at the Court room of the Commission to discuss the role of rehabilitation centres in dealing with drug addicts, which was attended by members of MHRC Core Group on Human Rights, Defender and Core Group on Women along with representatives of community-based organisations who have extensive knowledge and expertise in the field, added the letter.

The consultation programme was organised after a team of the Commission inspected various de-addiction/ rehabilitation centres established across the State and found various discrepancies at such centres.

The team also found during interaction with the inmates that some of them have been 'picked up' against their or parent's will and forcibly admitted in the centres.

MHRC has also informed the DGP to look into the matter of alleged involvement of police personnel in such incidents.