Home / News / Urgent Appeals / UPDATE (India): An appeal for justice for Sr. Vanaselvi

UPDATE (India): An appeal for justice for Sr. Vanaselvi

February 19, 2002

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

19 February 2002

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
UP-07-2002 (RE: UA-08-2002 - Expulsion of Sr Vanalselvi while in detention)


INDIA: unfair dismissal, social ostracism, denial of right to livelihood and freedom of expression by Religious Order
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

On February 7 we released a special joint urgent appeal with People's Watch Tamil Nadu regarding the expulsion of Sr. Vanaselvi from the religious congregation Mother of Sorrows Servants of Mary, based in Chennai, India. Sr. Vanaselvi had been a model servant of the poor her entire life before being arrested by the Suramangalam police on baseless allegations. The Superior General of the Order, Sr. Corona Mary, not only dismissed her without warning or discussion while in prison, she also ordered all of the nuns of the congregation to completely ostracise Sr. Vanaselvi.

We provide here for your information an appeal letter written to Sr. Corona Mary by Bijo Francis, a well respected Legal Advocate working for the village legal reform and human rights organisation 'Jananeethi' in Kerala, India. If you wish to also take action on behalf of Sr. Vanaselvi, please see our previous appeal at: www.ahrchk.net

With thanks for your action,

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission
=======================================================================

Dear Sr. Corona Mary,

It is with great pain and anguish that I mail you this letter.

I came to know about the arrest and detention and subsequent release of one among your order Sr. Vanalselvi. I understand that the arrest and the entire drama that followed was poorly stage-managed by the police but better than what you have done. I can understand the act of the policia and their pitiful stand at the High Court since the policia in India is nothing new to me. They are persons paid form the government exchequer to execute the demands of the politicians, their henchmen, the rich and the powerful. Whoever stood against this influential beast had no place in the service and were thrown away form action or cornered.

But I feel it difficult to conceive, neither can I agree with you, whatever be the reasons and excuses be, for expelling Sr. Vanalselvi form your religious order. That too when she required your support the most in her life. Let me express my deep contempt for your impulsive action, which was thoughtless and harsh. The strictures your congregation issued to other members on the arrest of Sr. Vanalselvi, i.e., 1. No one to meet her in jail, 2. Not to have correspondence with her, 3. No community or institution to allow her to enter after her release from jail, 4. Not to comment on the incident or its background to anyone, were even worse than what the police did, while she was detained in custody.

If no one form the congregation she served her better part of her life were to meet her while she was detained in custody, whom else did you expect to be with her?

If none were to communicate with her how did you expect her to ventilate her feelings?

If she is not to be admitted into any of your houses or institutions on release, where else do you expect her to go?

If your congregation is not to condemn the police atrocity who else will stand by her?

I believe in a Christ who was a social reformer. I believe in a church which stand by the poor, needy and destitute. I believe in a preaching which is just not a word of mouth but is a catalyst for action. If the members of your congregation are prohibited form social involvement, what else is your congregation standing for? Is it to run Super Specialty Hospitals or High Tech Schools and Colleges or recreation centers? These type of institutions are not scarce in our country. We do not require your pious presence and sacrifice for running and managing these five star institutions. We require people who stand for the needy and poor.

It was not the acts of Sr. Vanalselvi that has brought disgrace to the Church. It was your thoughtless action, recklessness and absence of patience & sympathy that has brought disgrace to the Catholic Church. If you do not believe in a system that gives an opportunity to be heard even to a hard core culprit, what else is your ideology or sense of justice? Sister, your decision have proved itself to be an example of gross miscarriage of justice and your response was a blatant denial of Human Rights. I am yet to know a Jesus who preached not to visit the prisoner & not to care for the wrong doer. He was worried about the lost lamb and was ready to sacrifice the rest to find the missing one.

You refer to Canon 703 in your dismissal letter. Have you ever cared to read the corresponding provisions before and after that? Have you followed the dictums before arriving at the decision and finally communicating the order of dismissal? I doubt. Had you been praying for a peaceful life for Sr. Vanalselvi, dear sister, your prayer has been heard.

Dear sister, your action and your letter was defying all principles of natural justice and a blatant denial of human rights. Sr. Vanalselvi will not be left alone in her fight. It was not the news of her arrest which has attracted the attention of the world, but let you know, it was your reaction to the arrest which has attracted the world community.

I urge you to immediately withdraw your statement circulated in your congregation and to unconditionally withdraw the order of dismissal with a letter of apology for your thoughtlessness.

Thanking you
Bijo Francis
Jananeethi
www.jananeethi.org

Bijo Francis
Advocate, Neelankavil, No. 1. Santhi Nagar
Thrissur, Kerala, India. Post Code. 680 003.

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-07-2002
Countries :
Issues :
Share |
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Follow AHRC
Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.