Human Rights in India
by Abhayraj Naik: Meiklejohn and Yale University Fellow
I first came across an MCLI publication in early 2008 when carrying out research for my Masters course at the Yale Law School. Swamped with course work as I then was, I didn’t bother looking into MCLI or the projects it was involved with. Thankfully, I had another opportunity soon enough.
My independent research brought me to the Bay Area, and MCLI was mentioned at my very first meeting in San Francisco. This time around, I spent some time going through the MCLI website and also reading about MCLI’s activities (and Alexander Meiklejohn’s ideas) on the Internet. Based on what I read, I knew that I would simply have to involve myself with MCLI in one way or the other. For starters, I have not seen a clearer or a more sustainable vision for human rights protection in the US than MCLI’s 4-Treaties Human Rights Reporting Project.
Each of my visits to MCLI over the past two months has been wonderfully educative and enjoyable. Ann has been extremely welcoming and has graciously guided me in formulating a long-term project to create human rights indicators that augment treaty-based human rights reporting. I hope to use these indicators in addressing the tragic incidence of torture in the northeast region of India, and I am sure that this project will prove useful for human rights reporting in many different parts of the world.
I am committed to education and to preserving and improving humankind’s common heritage — and I am convinced that the start of my serendipitous association with MCLI bodes well for the future.