ThinkEdu Conclave 2025: NHRC Chairperson Critiques GANHRI’s Accreditation Delay

“I think there is a fundamental flaw in their argument. If you have to assess an institution and give accreditation, you must assess its performance and not its DNA,” said the NHRC Chairperson
Justice V Ramasubramanian, NHRC Chairperson
Justice V Ramasubramanian, NHRC Chairperson(Pic: Ashwin Prasath)
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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairperson Justice V Ramasubramanian raised strong objections to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) for deferring NHRC’s accreditation during the inaugural session of the 13th ThinkEdu Conclave held on January 27, 2025.

Speaking on the topic ‘Balancing the Scales: Rights, Duties and the Indian Soul,’ moderated by Dinamani Editor Vaidyanathan, Justice Ramasubramanian addressed GANHRI’s rationale for withholding NHRC’s accreditation for the past two years. GANHRI, the apex certification body for national human rights institutions, cited NHRC’s non-compliance with the Paris Principles of 1993.

“I think there is a fundamental flaw in their argument. If you have to assess an institution and give accreditation, you must assess its performance and not its DNA,” said the NHRC Chairperson.

He further added, “If you assess the performance of NHRC and say that it is not up to the standard, we do not give you accreditation, I agree. But if you say that there is a congenital deformity in how you are born, then I think it’s not about the accreditation of NHRC, but it is an accreditation of the government.”

Justice Ramasubramanian acknowledged that resolving the delay in accreditation has been a major challenge since taking over as NHRC Chairperson a little over a month ago. Additionally, he highlighted the complexity of enforcing human rights in a country as diverse as India, which has people practising more than eight major religions worldwide, divided by 1,640 castes and communities, speaking more than 22 official languages, and having different ethnicities.

NHRC’s Powers, Rights and Duties

In response to questions about whether NHRC is considered toothless, Justice Ramasubramanian disagreed, emphasising NHRC’s power to inquire, investigate, and make recommendations.

“NHRC has powers equivalent to those of a civil court. We have the power to summon and enforce the attendance of witnesses. We have the power to record evidence if somebody does not turn up, we can follow the same steps as a civil court can enforce attendance. Therefore, it is not a toothless tiger,” said the Chairperson.

Talking about rights and duties, Justice Ramasubramanian said that historically all societies including India have been duty-conscious societies rather than right-conscious. But the course of history took a detour around the 20th century with a focus on rights.

“The debate of rights vs duty has again regained momentum and there is an increasing awareness that their duties to fellow human beings have become the focus worldwide. Without imbibing upon ourselves the duty to respect the rights of others, I think our rights will be put in jeopardy,” he said. 

Prabhu Chawla Highlights ThinkEdu’s Legacy

Delivering the welcome address, Editorial Director of The New Indian Express (TNIE), Prabhu Chawla, highlighted that TNIE is the only newspaper in the country to have sustained a high-quality conclave on education for the last 13 years.

“In the world of market, where valuations are becoming more important, we are all devoted to the values of Bharat,” he said. He further added that education is not commerce alone, but a value-building exercise for the newspaper.

Recalling the conclave’s journey, Chawla noted that it has hosted 500 speakers who had participated in discussions on themes such as the Indianisation of education and entrepreneurship in skilling students. However, he cautioned against over-reliance on artificial intelligence (AI), warning of its potential to undermine critical thinking.

He urged the need to balance modernity with traditional knowledge, saying, “We must find the best ways to integrate modernity with traditional knowledge with our inputs”.

A theme song created using AI was also played during the inaugural session.

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