Over 250 students of St Joseph’s School of Arts and Science gathered on Wednesday, to express their solidarity with victims of human rights violations on the occasion of United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
However, as rains lashed the city, the rally could not begin from the college premises as planned.
Holding a candle light vigil, along with members of the South Indian Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM), students of the institution got together and voiced their solidarity for victims of rape, assault, suffocation, electric shocks, forced starvation, sleep deprivation and among other forms of physical and psychological torture.
Executive Director of SICHREM Ashok Mathews Philip said that there is a need to prevent assaults and rehabilitate the victims. “Many prisoners are violated by police authorities, people are subjected to domestic violence and children are punished badly. All these are violations and perpetrators need to be prosecuted,” he said.
Hamsa, a second-year BSc Biotechnology student, said that the New Delhi gang-rape and Manipal incident shows that more people need to come out and voice their opposition to such heinous crimes.