Human Rights in India: What Still Needs to Be Done

--Shivanand H Lengati and C B Ranganathaih

Human rights are essential for the protection and maintenance of the dignity of the individuals. They create conditions in which every individual can develop his personality to the fullest extent. In India, the full realization of human rights is a distant dream. It cannot be easily or quickly achieved. Although recent years have seen remarkable efforts by the governments in India to promote human rights like many other developing countries, still much has to be done for the better protection of human rights.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Judicial Review of Administrative Actions: A Critical Study with Reference
to the Writ of Mandamus in the Indian Scenario

--Sanjay S Bang

The paper studies the judicial review of administrative actions with reference to the writ of Mandamus from the Indian point of view. Judicial review of administrative actions is the power of the court to determine the constitutionality of the Acts by the authority. The principal object of the writ of Mandamus is to provide for judicial review of State action by which the court will order in the form of command to the public authority if it is not performing the functions. The object of the writ is not to punish the authority but to ask to perform its duty. In India, it has enabled the common man to take the public authority to task whenever it is not performing its duty. In the absence of such a writ, it would be difficult to have control over the public authority with regard to their work.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

The Non-State Actors’ Liability for Human Rights: A Challenge to State

--K Sivananda Kumar

Much of the debate regarding human rights and business has focused on examples where multinational corporations have been accused of being directly responsible for or being complicit in human rights abuses. Multinational companies come under particular scrutiny because of their perceived power and the reach of their global supply networks. Legitimate concerns are raised over the extent to which weak or impoverished governments may be willing or able to hold corporations to account for any corporate misconduct. In short, should human rights abuses occur, there is a concern as to how corporate accountability can best be ensured. States are required to protect individuals against human rights abuses by third parties, including corporations. This is usually done through domestic laws. Thus, while most international human rights standards are not directly legally binding on companies, businesses can infringe on human rights by breaching the domestic laws in place to protect those rights. Recently, the Supreme Court of India has taken a strong stand against companies which have not been respecting the basic human rights of people living in areas of industrial projects.

© 2015 IUP All Rights Reserved.

Corporate Social Responsibility: The Indian Scenario

--V R Uma

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of business entails simultaneous fulfillment of the firm’s economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. In its most authentic form, CSR aims to serve society, not as a means to propel a business forward financially, but rather to give back to humanity and promote good in the world. In the growing acceptance of the need for corporations to simultaneously protect the interests of their shareholders, employees, customers and the community in which they operate, it has become mandatory for the corporate to urgently meet other divergent obligations also as an extended part of their social responsibilities such as the right to equality and non-discrimination, occupational health and safety, terms and conditions of employment, minimum wage, collective bargaining, prohibition of child labor and forced labor. They have to keep a rigid vigil on sustainability, resource development on indigenous land and environmental management as well. The Indian Companies Act, 2013 has made far-reaching changes in the field of CSR. This paper analyzes the obligation imposed by the new Act and discusses the significance of CSR and its need in the present-day scenario.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Global Environmental Governance: A Legal Perspective

--S Ravi

Global environmental crises are primarily crises of values. Environmental considerations are being ignored by mankind in decision making and human behavior has resulted in the destruction of the environment. The environment has become a focus not only in courses traditionally concerned with geography, environmental science and ecology, but also in agriculture, politics, economics, law, sociology, and philosophy, etc. Almost all the countries in one or the other way have innumerable problems such as poverty, unemployment, economic imbalance, social tension, technological backwardness and ecological imbalance. The nature and dimension of these problems have to be diagnosed and analyzed for bringing appropriate remedial actions. This paper seeks to identify a number of practical steps and the regional initiatives which were taken to foster more efficient and effective environmental regime, making better use of the resources available, and designed in a way that was most helpful to the implementation of international environmental agreements.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.