Tuesday, March 29 2005 09:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Despite being a "vibrant democracy" with strong constitutional protections, India's human rights enforcement record has been "poor" and needed improvement, the United States has said in a report.

In its second such report in a month, the State Department yesterday (Mar 28, 2005) criticised New Delhi's human rights record but said the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre has started addressing rights concerns that have "arisen over the years".

While lauding the Centre for "rewriting school text books" and "addressing the aftermath of the Gujarat riots", the report reiterated its concern over the situation in the State.

"Following its electoral victory in May, the Government began to address a number of human rights concerns that have arisen in recent years. For example, it moved quickly to rewrite school textbooks...in order to stress the contributions of the Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian minority communities," it said.

However, it said, the rewriting of the textbooks has not been completed, and alleged that Gujarat Government has not recalled its old textbooks or announced plans for their replacement.

"The Government also began to address the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots," it said and noted that the Supreme Court had ordered local courts to reopen over 2,000 cases connected with the post-Godhra riots.

But by the end of last year, "the report on the number of cases that should be reopened had not been submitted to the Supreme Court, and only three cases related to the Gujarat rioting had completed trial in the lower level courts," it charged.

The report claimed that human rights organisations and religious groups remained concerned about allegations of witness intimidation by local leaders in Gujarat, the cases that have not been reopened, and about increasing displacement and "ghettoization" of the Muslim community.

While acknowledging the repeal of anti-terror act POTA, the report said POTA-like legislation such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act remained in force in many States, "leading to serious human rights violations."

Referring to South Asia as a whole, the report said that the region was facing numerous human rights and development challenges that threaten stability and democracy, while various long-standing ethnic conflicts and insurgencies hamper further progress.

The report termed the peace process between India and Pakistan "another positive development. "Both President (Pervez) Musharraf and Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh showed a willingness to reach peaceful settlements on major bilateral issues, including Kashmir.

Continued engagement between the two countries has the potential to resolve the Kashmir problem, it added.