Imphal, April 05: The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurist (ICJ) has took notice of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's request to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers' Act, said a release of Human Rights Alert issued by its programme executive.

In its e-bulletin on 'counter-terrorism and Human Rights circulated in March this year, the ICJ apprised the Central Government to repeal the Act, the rights body said.

The Human Rights Alert conveyed that in ICJ's concluding observation on India's report on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Govt of India to repeal AFSPA of 1958 and to replace it by a 'more humane act'.

The UN panel further observed that under the act, members of the armed forces are granted broad powers, including the authority to kill, to search and arrest suspects without a warrant, said the rights body while reminding that these concerns were also raised in February at a hearing held by the ICJ Eminent Jurist Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights.

Apart from the Indian context of the issue, modalities of containing acts of terrorism and other related issues in numerous Asian countries were also deliberated upon during a hearing conducted by the ICJ in New Delhi on February last, it said.

Rights activists from Manipur also presented their case during the ICJ deliberation, added the HRA release.

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