INVITATION TO A CONSULTATION ON THE PREVENTION OF COMMUNAL AND TARGETTED VIOLENCE BILL
(30 May, Monday, J.P.Naik Bhavan, Kalina Campus, 3-6.30 p.m.)
Many of us have engaged with the Communal Violence Bill since 2004, when the UPA government’s Common Minimum Programme included a promise of enacting a “model comprehensive law on communal violence” and thereafter, it introduced the Communal Violence (Suppression) Bill 2005 in the Parliament. After a rejection of the government draft by the civil society, in June 2010, the government formed a Working Group on the Prevention of Communal and Targetted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 under the aegis of the National Advisory Council (NAC) – which is set up as an interface between the government and civil society. The Working Group was entrusted with the task of developing a draft Bill on the issue. The Working Group included members from civil society who have been actively engaging with the issue.
The Working Group’s draft Bill – “Prevention of Communal & Targetted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill” – has now been finalized and approved by the NAC last week. The NAC has uploaded the Bill on its website and invited suggestions and feedback from civil society to the same, which can be emailed to wgcvb@nac.nic.in on or before 4 June 2011. Although the time period for sending the feedback to the NAC is short, this provides us a window of opportunity to engage with the Bill once again, to study its provisions and to make constructive suggestions to the NAC for strengthening the Bill.
For this purpose, All India Secular Forum’s Mumbai chapter invites you to participate in a consultation on the ‘Prevention of Communal & Targetted Violence Bill’. All India Secular Forum (AISF) is a broad network of secular-humanist organizations and individuals working on secularism, human rights, equality, justice, peace and communal harmony across the country.
A tentative schedule will be circulated shortly. We are attaching a copy of the Bill with this mail for your ready reference. The Bill can also be downloaded from the link: http://nac.nic.in/pdf/pctvb_amended.pdf.
We request you to familiarize yourself with the provisions of the Bill in order that we may have a fruitful discussion.
We look forward to your active participation in this consultation.
In solidarity,
Saumya Uma, Neha Dabhade, Lynne Henry and Akram Khan
Convening Committee – Mumbai All India Secular Forum