South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre

Description

The South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, SAHRDC, is a network of individuals working on human rights across South Asia. Its office is based in New Delhi and is run with interns and a small number of volunteers. It investigates, documents and shares information on human rights treaties, education, refugees, media freedom, prison reform, political imprisonment, torture, executions and disappearances.

SAHRDC builds an archive of reports, court documents, media clippings and other material on violations of civil and political rights, drawn from activists, lawyers, journalists and other organizations. When needed, it sends Action Alerts asking the international community to press governments across South Asia to stop specific violations. It has run training workshops on international human rights law and UN mechanisms for officials, NGOs and activists throughout South Asia and East Asia since the 1990s.

The centre runs a long-standing internship programme, taking unpaid interns and volunteers from India and abroad to carry out research, field visits and reporting. It relies on subscriptions and professional fees for its information services along with small donations inside India, since Indian law has kept it from receiving foreign donor funding. Together with its sister organization, the Human Rights Documentation Centre, it publishes the journal Human Rights Features.