The Centre for Advanced Studies in Human Rights (‘CASIHR’) is a research centre under the aegis of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab. The Centre’s primary objective is to undertake, support and promote advanced study and interdisciplinary research on the emerging trends in human rights and its allied fields.
The Human Rights Blog is an egalitarian space welcoming original contributions involving critical interdisciplinary research on human rights developments across the world.
It aims to initiate and promote dialogue, discussion and discourse between various actors and stakeholders in the field of human rights. It intends to provide an accessible forum for timely, relevant, well-researched, and edited scholarly articles. It is based on a contributor-based model.
The right to dissent is one of the most important rights granted to us by the Constitution. This right is intrinsic to the very idea of democracy. However, in recent times we have witnessed attacks on the right to dissent across the world, to curtail the freedom of speech and expression of individuals.
The misuse of the provisions of sedition, anti-terror and national security laws has also been witnessed repeatedly, in several nations, that through their overly broad interpretations crackdown on this basic right. The misuse of these laws by the law enforcement agencies has even led to curbing journalistic expression and ideological opposition and has had a chilling effect on speech and expression in such nations. Such a dismal situation has only been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic through enacting or invoking specialised laws so as to silence any voice raised in criticism on grounds of spreading fake news or misinformation.
It must be realised that for the all-round growth of a nation, the rights of the populace should be protected and their interests be promoted. It is only through disagreement and dissent that deliberations can be initiated so as to carve out laws and policies that promote the interests of the nation as a whole. The right to disagree and dissent is what prevents democracy from turning into a police state. Thus it is essential that the views expressed in opposition, through lawful means, be encouraged as they forward the idea of deliberative democracy.
Therefore, it has become imperative to address this issue from a humanitarian perspective and by means of this special series we seek to initiate and promote discourse on the clampdown on dissent being witnessed around the world.
The sub-themes are only illustrative and submissions are not restricted to the aforementioned subthemes, provided that they fall within the ambit of the main theme.
Submissions shall only be made through Google Form. The same can be accessed here. Authors are requested to read our Guidelines for Authors, here. and the Editorial Policy,here before submitting their articles.
The last date of submission is 22nd November 2020 by 11:59 PM IST.
In case of any query, contact us at casihr@rgnul.ac.in.
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