Counterview

Counterview News  The latest update to Equality Now's flagship Words & Deeds report reveals that women's and girls' rights globally are facing a "strategic and coordinated rollback," with hard-won legal protections being weakened or deliberately undermined, though the report stresses this backlash is neither inevitable nor irreversible .

By A Representative   Senior activists and former political prisoners, talking with mediapersons in Dakhi, have  drawn attention to conditions inside Indian jails, even as demanding the immediate release of documentary filmmaker Vishal Singh on medical grounds, citing his deteriorating health. The press conference was held under the banner of the civil rights network,  Campaign Against State Repression (CASR).

Counterview News   Persistent caste discrimination , the marginalisation of Dalits , concerns over the rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples , and the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities are among the issues flagged by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its latest observations on India.

By Stephanie Weatherbee Brito, Vijay Prashad   Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is innocent. This is a statement of law and fact, since Maduro has not been convicted of any crime. He has pleaded not guilty to every charge brought against him, and the accusations made by the United States remain precisely that: accusations. Under the presumption of innocence – recognised in the United States Constitution and in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – the burden rests entirely upon the prosecution to prove guilt. It is not Maduro who must prove his innocence, but it is the United States government that must prove his guilt.

Counterview News   The advocacy group Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPi) has rejected as inadequate and evasive the response it received from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to its August demand for a ban on junk food advertising , saying the government's reply sidesteps every substantive demand raised by the country's leading doctors and public health experts.

By A Representative   The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), an association of retired officers from the All India and Central Services, has issued a strongly worded statement expressing solidarity with retired senior civil servant Ashish Joshi and accusing the Delhi Police of violating constitutional safeguards during his detention and interrogation in connection with an alleged social media post.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  September 13 holds an important place in the history of the struggle for the rights of Indigenous and tribal communities. On September 13, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) by an overwhelming majority. A total of 143 countries voted in favour of the declaration.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The deaths caused by poisonous and adulterated liquor in six villages of Bunda tehsil in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district have once again brought the state’s excise system, police administration and allegations of political protection into sharp focus. Residents of Ghughra Khurd, Nauraaj, Bamura, Patan, Chauka and Dalpatpur fell ill after consuming poisonous liquor, and a series of deaths followed. As of the morning of September 7, the administration had confirmed 12 deaths, while local reports put the toll as high as 19. This discrepancy itself should be investigated. Around 30 people are reportedly still under medical observation.

By A Representative   In what rights advocates are calling a defining moment for India's sex workers' movement, representatives from six states gathered at the Calcutta Press Club to launch the Yaunkarmi Adhikar Manch — a national platform led by sex workers themselves to defend their rights, dignity and freedom.

By Prof. Jagmohan Singh, Bharat Dogra   Bhagat Singh remains one of the most inspiring freedom fighters in the liberation struggles of countries that resisted colonial rule for centuries. More than 95 years after he sacrificed his life alongside fellow valiant Indian freedom fighters like Sukhdev and Rajguru, his inspirational legacy extends far beyond India.

By Thomas Kell*  As a researcher whose primary work examines the application of international law to geopolitical disputes in South Asia, I have also developed a particular interest in Tibet and the Tibetan government-in-exile. Recently, I read the statement issued by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on the 66th Tibetan Democracy Day, and it prompted me to want to engage with the Tibetan exile community on a topic I've thought about for some time: the structural shortcomings of the Tibetan democratic system, viewed from a legal perspective.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  An old mosque has been demolished by the Saharanpur administration under the pretext of a court order that was about to be challenged in a higher court. It is extremely shocking to see how the administration has turned highly biased and quick to invoke the "rule of law" when the alleged violation or crime is committed by Muslims. It keeps a blind eye when lumpen elements from the Hindu community take the law into their own hands, violate it, and rubbish it.

By Palla Trinadha Rao*  When a small tribal hamlet in Sikkim can single-handedly hold up a hydropower project worth thousands of crores, whose job is it to say no to the company — and whose job is it to say no to the hamlet? A one-page government note quietly answered that question this week: nobody's job.

By A Representative    The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, has issued a formal legal notice to the state’s top administrative and police brass demanding immediate criminal, departmental, and disciplinary action against officers of the Nilambaug Police Station in Bhavnagar for allegedly subjecting a murder accused to brutal custodial torture and public humiliation.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The anti-intellectualism of authoritarian leaders is not new. From the McCarthy era to the Trump administration in the United States, from Indira Gandhi’s Emergency to Narendra Modi’s India, from military-mullah rule in Pakistan to Thatcherite Britain, and from the reactionary right’s advance across Europe to the dictatorships of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America—one pattern repeats: illiberal regimes consistently display a visceral disdain for intellectuals and for critical inquiry itself.

By M.G. Devasahayam*  Meta—the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp—recently agreed to a US$16.68 billion settlement in US courts over allegations that its platforms contributed to mental‑health harms among children. The settlement emerged during a federal trial involving claims brought by 29 states, local governments, school districts and individuals. Meta, along with Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok, continues to face thousands of lawsuits alleging that these companies knowingly designed features that are addictive to children and adolescents, thereby exacerbating a nationwide youth mental‑health crisis.

By A Representative   The West Bengal human rights group Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) has approached the National Human Rights Commission of India, the Supreme Court of India and senior West Bengal authorities seeking an independent investigation into the alleged illegal detention, disputed identification as a Bangladeshi national, attempted push-back across the India-Bangladesh border and custodial ill-treatment of a 66-year-old man from Uttar Dinajpur district.

By A Representative   Women engaged in manual scavenging gathered in the national capital to counter the Union government’s official stance in Parliament that the practice has been eradicated in India.

By Aditya Sharma*  Dr P K Gupta's recent article ( The 'Dr' debate masks a larger crisis in allied-health education , Counterview , 1 August 2026)  on the use of the "Dr" prefix by physiotherapists reads, on its surface, as a balanced take on a genuinely difficult question. But a closer look shows that it revives a set of arguments that were put before Parliament during the drafting of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 (NCAHP Act) — and that Parliament's own Standing Committee considered and rejected. This response draws on the Committee's 117th Report and the text of the Act itself to lay out why.

By A Representative   A group of students and youth activists in Ahmedabad has issued a set of demands to the authorities after alleging that a peaceful reading session was violently disrupted by members of the Bajrang Dal in broad daylight on August 27, with police allegedly standing by and later diluting the First Information Report to protect the accused.