Legal Directions Newsletter January 2019

Newsletter on Indian and International Legal Affairs An initiative of RMN Foundation humanitarian organization VOL. II | ISSUE 1 | January 2019

Legal Directions Law Simplified

By Rakesh Raman

Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, addresses the Security Council meeting on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.

Photo: UN

Main Stories in This Issue - How to Prevent Corruption in Judiciaries - Language Limitations in Indian Judiciary - Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact - Resolutions in Assembly of States Parties - Law to Control Social Media

- Community Court in Delhi - Artificial Intelligence in Justice Systems - UN Human Rights Prize - New Practice of Friendly Settlements - Criminal Justice Reform Bills

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UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact Launched The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact Task Force will replace the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has launched a new organization-wide framework to coordinate efforts across the peace and security, humanitarian, human rights, and sustainable development sectors.

Termed the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, the framework is an agreement between the UN chief, 36 organizational entities, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the World Customs Organization, to better serve the needs of Member States when it comes to tackling the scourge of international ​terrorism​.

Speaking at the first meeting of the Compact’s Coordination Committee, at the UN Headquarters, in New York, Mr. Guterres highlighted the need to ensure full respect for international human rights standards and rule of law in countering terrorism.

“Policies that limit human rights only end up alienating the very communities they aim to protect and which normally have every interest in fighting extremism,” he said, adding that as a result “such policies can effectively drive people into the hands of terrorists and undermine our efforts on prevention.”

He also urged greater vigilance against the misuse of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence​, drones, and 3D (three-dimensional) printing, as well as against the use of hate-speech and distortion of religious beliefs by extremist and terrorist groups.

According to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, the Coordination Committee will oversee the implementation of the Compact and monitor its implementation. It is chaired by UN Under-Secretary-General for counter-terrorism, Vladimir Voronkov.

At its meeting, the Coordination Committee also discussed strategic priorities for the next two years, based on the sixth review of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, relevant Security Council resolutions and UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) assessments as well as Member States requests for technical help.

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The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact Task Force will replace the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, which was established in 2005 to strengthen UN system-wide coordination and coherence of counter-terrorism efforts. ​Courtesy: UN

New Podcasts Launched to Prevent Corruption in Judiciaries Global Judicial Integrity Network suggests to incorporate judges' use of social media into judicial training courses.

The Global Judicial Integrity Network has introduced a new series of podcasts to promote peer-learning and the exchange of good practices in strengthening and upholding judicial integrity. Relevant experts will give their views on specific thematic issues of judicial integrity.

Article 11 of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) calls for boosting integrity and preventing corruption in judiciaries. To this end, UNODC supports the fulfillment of Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct and built the Global Judicial Integrity Network.

Recently, U.S. Judge Virginia Kendall was interviewed by Roberta Solis from the Global Judicial Integrity Network on how to incorporate judges' use of social media into judicial training courses.

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Topics include how to structure training courses and apply existing codes of conduct to social media issues, as well as the potential concerns with judges' use of social media.

Assembly of States Parties Adopts Five Resolutions The Bureau of the Assembly will select the dates and venue for the eighteenth session of the Assembly by 31 January 2019.

The Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("the Assembly") held its seventeenth session from 5 to 12 December 2018 at the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague. The Assembly was attended by States Parties, observer States, invited States, international and regional organizations and representatives of civil society.

The Assembly adopted five resolutions by consensus on: the remuneration of the judges of the International Criminal Court, amendments to rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, cooperation, the proposed programme budget for 2019 and strengthening the International Criminal Court and the Assembly of States Parties.

The Assembly also adopted the 2019 programme budget of the Court totalling €148,135,100 and a staffing level of 973. The Bureau of the Assembly will select the dates and venue for the eighteenth session of the Assembly by 31 January 2019.

Risks of Language Limitations in Indian Judiciary: Pitfalls and Solutions The focus of law institutes is on imparting traditional law education which is not sufficient to prepare students to survive in today’s communications-driven world.

A new consultative ​paper reveals that the Indian courts are not yet ready to work in English

language. With a number of examples, the paper says that the language used in Indian courts is so bad that it is not possible to make heads or tails of the sentences written in the court documents, including petitions and orders.

The paper adds that the trouble begins in the Indian law institutes – colleges and universities – most of which do not have qualified teachers to teach proper English to students.

The focus of these institutes is on imparting traditional law education which is not sufficient to prepare students to survive in today’s communications-driven world. The consequences of this skill gap are disastrous for the Indian legal system.

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As lawyers cannot write simple, unambiguous applications, they lift text from old cases and use them in their documents without any attempt to correct or customize them. They cannot write bespoke applications and petitions because they find it difficult to rewrite in English.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India. Photo: Rashtrapati Bhavan

Therefore, most lawyers are offering template-based services to their clients – most of whom are illiterate or ignorant. When such cases go to the courts, the judges and court staff find it difficult to decipher the complex language written in the petitions.

The courts deliver ad hoc pronouncements without fully understanding the cases because they are filed in English language. The losing parties keep filing appeals or review petitions – which is also a reason for huge pendency in Indian courts. Today, there are nearly 33 million pending cases in different courts of India.

You can ​click here to download​ the pdf version of this consultative paper.

Write for Legal Directions Newsletter

RMN Foundation publishes ​Legal Directions which is a monthly newsletter on Indian and

international legal affairs. Currently, the newsletter project is being managed by Mr. Rakesh Raman who is a national award-winning journalist and founder of RMN Foundation.

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Legal Directions i​ nvites legal professionals, advocates, teachers, and students to contribute their editorial articles for the newsletter. You may please submit the articles with your brief profile to Mr. Rakesh Raman (Email: contact@rmnfoundation.org). Students from all across the world are also invited to ​participate​ as volunteers in this project.

Joenia Wapixana Wins 2018 UN Human Rights Prize Wapixana was one of four individuals or organizations awarded the prestigious UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights this year.

Joenia Wapixana was the first in her family to go to university to study law. In 1997, she became Brazil’s first indigenous lawyer; and in 2018, she became Brazil’s first indigenous congresswoman.

Joenia Wapixana. Photo: UN Human Rights

After taking the “Raposa Serra do Sol” land dispute to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Wapixana became the first indigenous lawyer to argue and win a case before the Supreme Court of Brazil.

She wanted to end the violence against indigenous peoples in Northern Brazil who had been persecuted for decades because they would not cede their ancestral lands to agribusiness companies.

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“In 2008 we had a positive result. In 2009, this was confirmed. So this verdict was relevant to end many threats and violations of human rights,” Wapixana said. “Without land, we have no education, no health, no environment, and no economy. That’s why indigenous land demarcation is a human rights issue as well.”

“Either you fight for the human rights of your people or you lose everything,” she added.

Wapixana was one of the four individuals or organizations awarded the prestigious UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

Previous winners included Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Denis Mukwege, Malala Yusafzai, Amnesty International, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

This is the tenth award of the prize, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the universal Declaration of Human Rights. Over 300 nominations were received this year.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Justice Systems It is essential to ensure that AI remains a tool in the service of the general interest and that its use respects individual rights.

The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe has adopted the first European text setting out ethical principles relating to the use of artificial intelligence (​AI​) in judicial systems.

The Charter provides a framework of principles that can guide policy makers, legislators, and justice professionals when they grapple with the rapid development of AI in national judicial processes.

The CEPEJ’s view as set out in the Charter is that the application of AI in the field of justice can contribute to improve the efficiency and quality and must be implemented in a responsible manner. It complies with the fundamental rights guaranteed in particular in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Personal Data.

For the CEPEJ, it is essential to ensure that AI remains a tool in the service of the general interest and that its use respects individual rights. The CEPEJ Charter is accompanied by an

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in-depth study on the use of AI in judicial systems, notably AI applications processing judicial decisions and data.

European Court to Test New Practice of Friendly Settlements Under the new practice, the Registry will not make a proposal for friendly settlement in each and every case.

The European Court of Human Rights has decided to introduce a new practice from 1 January 2019 involving a dedicated, non-contentious phase in respect of all Contracting States. The Court will decide whether to continue this practice at the end of a one-year test period.

The purpose of introducing such a phase is to facilitate friendly settlements. There are essentially two aspects to this new practice. Firstly, the Court’s Registry will usually make a friendly settlement proposal when respondent governments are given notice of applications.

Secondly, there will be two distinct phases in the procedure: a 12-week friendly settlement phase (non-contentious), and a further 12-week observations phase (contentious with an exchange of observations).

Currently these two procedures run in parallel; Governments are given 16 weeks to submit their observations on the admissibility and merits of a case. Within the first eight weeks of that period they are also required to inform the Court whether they are prepared to conclude a friendly settlement.

Under the new practice, the Registry will not make a proposal for friendly settlement in each and every case: there are exceptions, for example cases raising novel issues which have never been examined by the Court or cases where for any specific reason it may be inappropriate to propose a friendly settlement.

The Court will continue its current practice of publishing information on the subject-matter of the case on HUDOC when Governments are given notice of applications. The letters sent to the parties at this stage will be revised to explain the new practice.

Download Previous Issues of Legal Directions September 2018

October 2018

November 2018

December 2018

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Read and Download RMN Publications

Raman Media Network (RMN) Company – which is an integrated technology media and entertainment ​company – is working in diversified content creation, management, and

distribution businesses on a global scale. Among other content-based activities, the company runs 4 global news sites on different subjects.

The company also publishes and distributes digital content products and magazines among readers around the world. You can ​read and download our digital products that cover diverse content streams.

Community Court Handles Corruption Cases of Delhi Residents While “Clean House” works as a community court, it receives public complaints, makes the formal petitions, and submits them to different government departments and law-enforcement agencies.

India’s capital New Delhi is not only the dirtiest and the ​most polluted city of the world, but it is also among the most corrupt cities. Today, corruption is so rampant in Delhi that the government is extending its open support to corruption and other illegal activities.

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Case in point: Delhi’s cooperative group housing societies (​CGHS​) where an estimated 3 million people live. These housing societies are operated by highly corrupt managing committee (MC) members who collude with the top government officials and politicians to loot public money.

The MC members work as frontal groups to extort money from residents and share the booty with bureaucrats and politicians. The MCs are elected bodies – elected through flawed election processes - which are supposed to be controlled by the Registrar Cooperative Societies (​RCS​) of Delhi Government.

Office of the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of Delhi Government

Since RCS office is full of corrupt officials, they do not act against the MC members despite repeated public complaints. When the complainants insist, in some cases RCS office orders superficial corruption ​inquiries in housing societies, but it hardly takes action against the corrupt MC members of those societies, and corruption continues.

While a number of government departments are involved in corruption, the Delhi Development Authority (​DDA​) and the RCS office of Delhi Government are perhaps the most corrupt departments that are blatantly participating in corruption.

The main government departments that are systematically supporting corruption and lawlessness in Delhi are:

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Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of the Delhi Government

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Delhi Development Authority (DDA)

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Office of the Lt. Governor (LG) of Delhi

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Office of the Chief Minister and other Ministers of Delhi

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Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD)

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Delhi Fire Service (DFS)

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Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC)

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Delhi Police

As millions of common residents are victims of government-supported corruption, an exclusive community-driven social service “​Clean House​” helps the suffering residents raise their voice against corruption and other illegal activities in Delhi’s cooperative group housing societies.

Major Crime and Corruption Cases in Delhi

Click the following links to download and read the case reports.

Case Report 1

Case Report 2

Case Report 3

Case Report 4

Case Report 5

Case Report 6

While “Clean House” works as a free community court, it receives public complaints, makes the formal petitions, and submits them to different government departments and law-enforcement agencies.

U.S. Congress Passes Two Criminal Justice Reform Bills Both bills passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The U.S. Congress has passed two pieces of legislation that the American Bar Association (ABA) supported and lobbied for — the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) and the First Step Act.

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President ​Donald Trump signed both into law on December 21, marking the most significant

legislative progress towards criminal justice system reform in a generation, ABA stated, adding that both bills passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Appeal for Donations RMN Foundation - the publisher of ​Legal Directions newsletter - is a humanitarian organization that was formed in May 2015 as an educational and public charitable Trust for

the benefit of humanity at large. It is registered with the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi at New Delhi, India.

Currently, all the activities of RMN Foundation are being managed single-handedly (without any support) by RMN Foundation founder Rakesh Raman who had left his job a few years ago to run this charity.

As RMN Foundation has embarked upon some major humanitarian projects during the past over 3 years, now it needs a significant amount of funds in the form of ​donations to expand the scope of its activities.

Individual Indian donors can help RMN Foundation with their contributions using the following bank details: Bank Name: ICICI Bank Bank Branch: HL Square, Plot No. 6, Sector 5 (MLU), Dwarka, New Delhi 110 075 Account Number: 025005004368 Account Name: RMN Foundation Type of Account: Current IFSC Code: ICIC0000250

New Indian Law to Control Information on Social Media Sites Government says social networking platforms are required to follow due diligence as provided in Section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000.

India’s Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000 was enacted with a view to give a fillip to electronic transactions, to provide legal recognition for e-commerce and e-transactions, to

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facilitate e-governance, to prevent computer based crimes, and ensure security practices and procedures. The Act came into force on 17th October, 2000.

Section 79 of the IT Act elaborates on the exemption from liabilities of intermediaries in certain cases. Section 79(2)(c) mentions that intermediaries must observe due diligence while discharging their duties, and also observe such other guidelines as prescribed by the Central Government. Accordingly, the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 were notified in April 2011.

Ravi Shankar Prasad – Technology and Law Minister of India. (file photo). Photo: PIB

The Indian Government says it is committed to freedom of speech and expression and privacy of its citizens as enshrined in the Constitution of India, adding that the Government does not regulate content appearing on social networking platforms.

These social networking platforms, though, are required to follow due diligence as provided in Section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000 and the Rules notified therein, subject to the import of Article 19(2) of the Constitution and ensure that these platforms are not used to commit and provoke terrorism, extremism, violence, and crime.

Government says the instances of misuse of social media by criminals and anti-national elements have brought new challenges to the law enforcement agencies. These include

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inducement for recruitment of terrorists, circulation of obscene content, spread of disharmony, incitement of violence, public order, ​fake news​, etc.

According to the Government, a number of lynching ​incidents were reported in 2018 mostly

alleged to be because of fake news / rumours being circulated through Whatsapp and other social media sites.

A calling attention motion on “Misuse of Socal Media Platforms and Spreading of Fake News” was admitted in the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) in 2018 (Monsoon Session).

India’s Minister for Electronics and IT, responding to the calling attention motion on 26/07/2018, made a detailed statement where he inter alia conveyed to the House the resolve of the Government to strengthen the legal framework and make the social media platforms accountable under the law.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) prepared the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2018 to replace the rules notified in 2011.

Presently consultation process is underway. The consultation process was initiated with Inter-Ministerial consultations and thereafter with other stakeholders, including major social media companies / messaging services platforms like ​Facebook​, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, WhatsApp, and other associations.

The Government says it intends to consult all stakeholders in the process. Accordingly, MeitY has commenced public consultation on the draft rules with the timeline of submission of comments by 15th January, 2019.

Sudhir Bhargava Appointed as Chief Information Commissioner The Central Information Commission is set up under the Right to Information Act of the Government of India.

The President of India administered the oath of office to Sudhir Bhargava as Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission (CIC), at a ceremony held on January 1, 2019 at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Four Information Commissioners namely Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, Vanaja N Sarna, Neeraj Kumar Gupta, and Suresh Chandra were also administered the oath of office of the Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission (CIC) by the CIC Sudhir Bhargava.

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With their induction, according to a government statement, the total number of Information Commissioners in the CIC including Chief Information Commissioner has gone up to 7.

The Chief Information Commissioner, Sudhir Bhargava, administering the oath of office to the newly appointed Information Commissioner, Vanaja N. Sarna, in New Delhi on January 01, 2019.

The CIC is set up under the Right to Information Act. It is the authorised body, established in 2005, under the Government of India.

Meet the Editor

The editor of ​Legal Directions newsletter ​Rakesh Raman is a national award-winning

journalist and social activist. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page column regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group).

Nowadays, for the past about 8 years, he has been running his own global news services on different subjects. He also has formed a free Education and Career Counselling Center for deserving children at a poor J.J. Colony in Dwarka, New Delhi under his NGO – RMN Foundation.

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He runs an exclusive community-driven anti-corruption social service “​Clean House​” to help the suffering residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice.

He also creates and distributes a number of ​digital publications that cover areas such as technology, law, environment, corruption and transparency.

He has created a comprehensive online information service to educate the Indian voters for the upcoming ​Lok Sabha election​ scheduled to happen in 2019.

Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development.

Collaboration with Legal Directions Project The ​Legal Directions newsletter is being published by RMN Foundation. It is being circulated among the top UN agencies, legal professionals, law colleges / universities, law-enforcement agencies, civil society organizations, social activists, and others in India and abroad.

RMN Foundation is looking for sponsors and collaborators across the world who can help us expand the legal content activity around ​Legal Directions​.

Contact

Rakesh Raman Founder RMN Foundation

463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4, Dwarka, Phase I New Delhi 110 078, INDIA

Contact by email