Posted by - Rajesh, you have been a human rights lawyer before you joined the United Nations and you have often focused on human rights in your work with the UN. Could you acquaint the readers as to the factors which had you rooted to human rights issues and litigation?
- We all need to make a living, but you also need satisfaction. I believe working on human rights issues or on human rights litigation can be immensely satisfying. As a young person I felt strongly about the many injustices I saw all around me. Even in the legal field, for instance, there were senior lawyers who often mistreated and exploited juniors. I remember writing about this subject many years ago in The Economic Times. Many young lawyers came up to me at the time and said that they absolutely identified with the issues of low stipends and mistreatment I had raised. I understand the situation has improved since then but not sufficiently so. In that regard I was very pleased to see your website post various employment opportunities that could be very helpful to your young professionals. Lawyers have to compete with each other but we also need to help each other. After all charity begins at home!
- Prior to joining the UN, I wrote on human rights related issues, taught at Delhi University and also filed cases related to human rights. For instance, I worked on AIDS related issues being the lawyer for the Aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan, short form ABVA (Aids Anti-Discrimination Movement), a proactive AIDS association of doctors, lawyers, blood donors, etc. As a lawyer I filed petitions in the superior courts challenging the discrimination of HIV positive persons. A petition was filed by me in the Delhi High Court against thejail authorities in charge of Tihar Jail, Asia’s biggest prison challenging the segregation of prisoners and mandatory testing.
- As the lawyer for ABVA I filed the first ever petition in South Asia before the Delhi High Court, challenging the criminalization of homosexuality. At the time I was a young lawyer, and I represented the petitioners together with senior counsel, Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney General of India.
- Later, I did my Masters in Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham where I went on a British Chevening scholarship and two to three years later Ibegan my career with the United Nations. My career with the UN spanned over two decades, spread across three continents, in numerous countries. It would take too long to discuss my various assignments with the United Nations. A lot of our work is also of a confidential nature.
2. When you first entered the Human Rights field, what was your vision for its further development?
- As a young lawyer, I was hopeful that the human rights situation in India and around the world on many issues would improve far more rapidly than it eventually did. With age you learn that things take time. In saying this, I do not wish to quell the enthusiasm some of your younger readers may have. As a matter of fact, the issue of discrimination against Dalits raised in my latest book ‘The Boy Who Wrote a Constitution’ is one that should have been laid to rest decades ago, but all these years after independence we still hear of atrocities being committed against lower castes and Dalits. Every few weeks there is a report in the national press of a Dalit girl being raped in a northern state. Clearly, we still have a long way to go. As our awareness of human rights increases the law concerning human rights also develops.
3. What inspired you to choose law as a career?
- At the time I became a lawyer, the private sector was less developed in India. One of the common career options lay in the banking and insurance world. I remember thinking that would be terribly dull. The other option many of my class fellows considered was to join the civil services. Although extremely prestigious, both then and now, the problem that I saw in the civil services at the time was its servile and sycophantic nature where civil servants often kowtowed to their seniors and to their political masters. I preferred choosing law as a career because of the independence it gave you.
4. What are the major areas a student should focus on during his law school journey?
- A law student should be familiar with many subjects, including, by the way, non-legal subjects, but if I had to pick out three areas, I would say Criminal Law, Contract Law and Constitutional Law, so three C’s. I believe that a good knowledge of these, particularly Constitutional Law will serve a law student well throughout his career, whether he chooses to work in a law firm, in a private company, in government or even in the United Nations, like myself.
5. In your opinion, what is one very important skill a student should develop in order to excel in legal field?
- Drafting skills are extremely important. The judges are going to read your petition, and you need to be sharp, concise but also incisive in your writing. These days you have courses that teach you skills in legal drafting. So aside from the areas of law I mentioned above, this is one other important area all students need to focus on. You need drafting skills both in pleadings and in preparing conveyancing deeds. In my own case, the time I spent on drafting helped me eventually to be the author of many books, especially those that fall in the non-fiction category. I believe a course in public speaking can also be extremely useful. One of my barrister friends in the UK did a course in acting which, he tells me, was extremely useful to him later on in life. It is his view, that in order to be truly successful, every arguing counsel and litigation lawyer needs to have an actor in him!
6. Tell us about your published books and upcoming ones?
- I have written thirty-two books so there probably isn’t enough space here to discuss all of them! These include novels, plays, children’s books, legal self-help books as well as non-fiction. Lawyers may find three books of particular interest. There is ‘The Judiciary on Trial’ which the celebrated journalistKhushwant Singh reviewed in his column ‘With Malice Towards One and All.’ As a result of that review, I received hundreds of letters from across the country and even from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. I was a young lawyer, but had Supreme Court judges calling my office for a copy of the book! A second important book for law students that I would recommend is ‘The Third Sex and Human Rights’. At the time I wrote it there was little awareness of the rights of transgenders and the discrimination that they suffered in South Asia.
- Today my book is prescribed reading in many Indian and overseas universities. I do think that law students could also benefit from a reading of ‘Courting Injustice: The Nirbhaya Case and Its Aftermath’ published by Hay House. Finally, I should mention my most recent book based on life-changing episodes in Dr BR Ambedkar’s life. Although it is a play and primarily meant for children, students and adults can also benefit from reading it. Law students will benefit from knowing more about the person who was the chief architect behind the Indian Constitution.
- ‘The Boy Who Wrote a Constitution’ is a play that seeks to inform children, and simultaneously have them meaningfully engage with the challenging boyhood and growing-up years of the person who came to write the Constitution of India, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. I have used the device of weaving together major events from Babasaheb’s life-story and having them interspersed with scenes in which five children react to his life, struggles and achievements in terms of their own identities. This gives this unique and exciting play a contemporary feel, adding to the modern-day relevance of Ambedkar’s life.
- I have several books in the pipeline. My next book is also a play,that should be of general interest. It should hold special interest for lawyers working in the field of human rights and environmental law. It is titled ‘How to Kill Everyone on the Planet’ and is intended to spark a debate on some of the pressing issues of the day.
Let me provide a YouTube link to some conversations I have had with respect to a couple of books. Your readers may wish to watch these videos before buying the books.
For ‘Courting Injustice: The Nirbhaya Case and Its Aftermath
For ‘The Third Sex and Human Rights’
7. What’s your opinion about our website LawOF?
- I was frankly quite impressed with it. It has a very reader-friendly look. A few years ago, I was the Executive Officer of the Human Rights Advisory Panel established for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK for short. We also had a website, but unfortunately it was quite shoddy and boring. During my time as Executive Officer, we improved it as great deal, looking at other comparable websites. At the time I remember we had looked at the Amnesty International website, where we found the yellow colour used to be a bit alarmist. We also examined the Human Rights Watch website which was more sober. I therefore suggest that, if you have not done so already, you look at similar websites in the UK, US and other countries and they might give ideas for further improvement.
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