NOTES AND REFERENCES‌

1. The president promulgated the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance on September 28, 1993. Subsequently, the Protection of Human Rights Bill, 1993, was passed by both the Houses of Parliament and received the assent of the President on January 8, 1994. The act came into force with retrospective effect from September 28, 1993.

2. 'International covenants’ means the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and

Cultural Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 16, 1966 and such other Covenant or Convention adopted by the General Assembly of the UN as the Central Government may specify. The Indian government acceded to these two International Covenants on April 10 1979.

3. T.K. Thommen, 'Human Rights Commission’, Cochin University Law Review, Vol. XVII, nos. 1 and 2, March- June 1993, p. 67-68.

4. A.M. Ahmadi Committee set up by the Commission recommended that the Commission should be empowered to inquire into any matter after the expiry of one year, if there is sufficient reason for not filing the complaint within the said period.

5. Justice V.S. Malimath, 'Role of Human Rights Commission’, Human Rights in India: Problems and Perspectives, B.P. Singh Sehgal (ed.), Deep Publications, 1995, p. 17-20.

6. Under the Act, 'armed forces’ means the naval, military and air forces and includes any other armed forces of the Union. A.M. Ahmadi Committee set up by the commission recommended that the definition of the 'armed forces’ should be changed in a way that it includes only navy, army and air force, not para-military forces.