Centre appoints Rakesh Asthana and 6 other as NHRC special monitor
- December 3, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Centre appoints Rakesh Asthana and 6 other as NHRC special monitor
Subject: Polity
Section: National body
Context: Center appoints Rakesh Asthana and 6 other as NHRC special monitor
More about the news:
- The Centre has appointed seven special monitors, including former Delhi police commissioner Rakesh Asthana, for the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
- The order, effective until September 22, 2025, designates Asthana to oversee thematic areas such as terrorism, counter-insurgency, communal riots, and Left-wing extremism.
- Other appointees will focus on areas like cybercrime, artificial intelligence, environment, climate change, human rights, elementary education, literacy, water sanitation, public health, healthcare, mental health, HIV/AIDS, spurious drugs, diagnostics, labs, livelihood, skilling, and employment.
- Asthana, a retired IPS officer with diverse experience, previously served in the CBI and faced controversy during a feud with the agency’s then director Alok Verma.
Some facts about NHRC:
- The National Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
- The Commission is the watchdog of human rights in the country
- The Commission is a multi-member body consisting of a chairperson and five members.
- The chairperson should be a retired chief justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court.
- Members should be a serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court, a serving or retired chief justice of a high court and three persons (out of which at least one should be a woman) having knowledge or practical experience with respect to human rights.
- The chairperson and members are appointed by the President on the recommendations of a six-member committee consisting of –
- Prime Minister as its head
- Speaker of the Lok Sabha
- Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
- Leaders of the Opposition in both the Houses of Parliament
- Central Home Minister
- The chairperson and members are appointed for the term of 3 years or till the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
- The chairperson and members are eligible for reappointment.
- The Commission also has five Specialized Divisions i.e. Law Division, Investigation Division, Policy Research & Programmes Division, Training Division and Administration Division.