Professional Documents
Culture Documents
January 2017
EventsatALF
Conversations On Discrimination
These conversations took place throught a number of panel discussions, inter movement dialogues and
other interactions on discrimination in Education, Employment, Health and Housing all through 2016.
This is in context of ALF's work on antidiscrimination since the last two years. The plethora of work seeks
to explore possibilities of a campaign against discrimination of all forms which may lead to the drafting of a
comprehensive anti discrimination law, that would address discrimination across caste, gender, adivasis,
religion, sexuality, gender identity, HIV status, race, region, color, articulation capacity etc. To read reports
and know more, please visit our website.
These conversations were organised through November and December 2016 aiming to bring together
different progressive voices on the UCC for multiple public discussions. The idea is not coming up with a
single solution but to broaden the context and understand different perspectives on the Governments
proposal to bring in a UCC.
Many of these meetings included diverse voices from the womens movement, collectives of women from
different communities, activists, researchers and others. Reports from the various discussions are available
at ALF. The Critique on the Law Commissions Questionnaire can be found in the Advocacy section of this
edition of Paryaya.
Dangerous Speech in Virtual Time
Over the last five years, with the increasing popularity of social media in India, accessed extensively through
inexpensive mobile phones, a range of actors have emerged to deal with the question of the increasing
circulation of excitable speech, and material that has been linked to public order disturbances.
The focus of law and legal regulation has shifted from the content itself, what it says, and the intention of the
author, to being able to preempt the circulation of such material. Increasingly it is through keywords and
algorithmic searches that the category of hate speech has been defined rather than traditional legal
doctrine. Siddharth Narrain was invited to ALF on the 23rd of December, 2016 to explore emerging questions
related to how the standards of hate speech and violent content laid down by companies differ from
domestic legal standards, and the multiple negotiations that take place between internet intermediaries and
governments. He underlined the complicated and shifting nature of sovereignties, and the blurring of
distinctions between private and public that the era of mobile phone enabled internet and social media
platforms.
Rights of Persons from the North East Living in Bangalore
In light of the recent judgment of a full bench of the Supreme Court of India in Karma Dorjee v Union of
India. The court has given many directions including the implementation of the Bezbaruah Committee
Report on the Concerns of the people of the North East living in other parts of the country.
This discussion looked at the implications of these developments in the context of Bangalore, a city that is
still reeling from the exodus of people from the North East in 2012. The Human Rights Project at the Azim
Premji University, North East Solidarity Forum and members of ALF presented on the issue on December
30th, 2016
Nyaayada Kanasu is a series of film screenings hosted by Pedestrian Pictures and Alternative Law
Forum, Bangalore. Every month, a set of four films will be screened on a specific theme. Each
theme focuses on different aspects of insecurities of the State discrimination, censorship, dissent,
nationalism, etc. Through this, we invite you to join us in exploring the idea of dissent as a quest
for justice.
Please find some of the movies scheduled for January, 2017 below.
January
January
3rd, 6 PM at ALF
10th, 6 PM at ALF
Advocacy
LawCommissionsQuestionnaireontheUniformCivilCode:
ACritique
ThequestionnairereleasedbytheLawCommissionofIndiatoinitiateadebateontheuniform
civilcode(UCC)isproblematiconvariousfronts.Theaimofthequestionnaire,asstatedbythe
lawcommission,istoseekopinionofthepublicaboutwaysinwhichfamilylawreformscanbe
introducedinanintegrativemanner,soastonotcompromisethediversityandpluralityofIndias
socialfabric.Inouropinion,thequestionnairehasfailedtoachievethisobjective.Firstofall,the
frameworkofthequestionnaireitselfisproblematicasitassumesthatweneedaUCC.Italso
seemstohaveassumedthatgenderequalityisdependentonthepresence/absenceof
laws/codification/UCCmerelyandnotdependentonactualcontentoftheselaws.Thewaythe
questionsandtheoptionshavebeenframed,limitsthescopeoftheanswers.Asimpleyesorno
answertoaquestionnegatesvariousotherfactorsuponwhichtheanswersmaydepend.
ReadthefullCritiquesubmittedtotheLawCommission
Wanttospeakaboutyourresearchwithadynamicaudience?
Interestedinsharingyourfieldstoriesasanactivist,oryourstrategicexperienceasa
litigator?
Wouldyouliketoexhibityourlatestperformancepieceinanintimatespace?
WehaveaForumforyou.
ALFsFridayForumshavebroughttogetherindividualsfromvariousdisciplinesand
professionstoengageinexcitinginterdisciplinaryconversations.Weinviteyoutobeapart
ofthisspace.
WritetoRamyaJawaharwithanabstractofyourtalkorperformancealongwithasuitable
dateandsubjectheadingFridayForumsat:contact@altlawforum.org
Wellgetbacktoyoufollowinganinternaldiscussion.
TheAlternativeLawForumisacollectiveoflawyersandresearchersinvestedinanalternativepractice
oflaw.ALFhasacommitmenttorespond,throughlitigationandresearch,toissuesofsocialand
economicinjustice.