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India

Collection Of DNA Spells Doom In India

Two scientists reading DNA genetic code
Two scientists reading DNA genetic code

-Analysis-

In 2007, the department of biotechnology in India began drafting a controversial legislative bill to collect and store the DNA information of Indian citizens in a national databank to help solve criminal cases. Since then, the measure has largely failed to move forward due to inadequate safeguards to secure this sensitive personal information. The Human DNA Profiling Bill is now back in parliament but it still does not fully address those previous concerns. I would go on to argue that this measure is even more dangerous now than it was when it was first raised a decade ago because of the current political climate in India.

The DNA legislation, if passed, could easily be another tool used by India's nationalist government to undermine the privacy of journalists, activists and even students.

Information as important as a person's DNA could soon be in the hands of a repressive government, under which Hindu extremist mobs have lynched Muslim minorities with impunity and extrajudicial killings have shown no signs of abating. In India today, sedition charges are routinely used to suppress free speech and minority rights. The local media has also increasingly been censored. The DNA legislation, if passed, could easily be another tool used by India's nationalist government to undermine the privacy of journalists, activists and even students.

The legislation as it stands now would allow medical laboratories, police stations and courts to collect DNA samples from unidentified dead people, missing persons and suspects accused of crimes punishable by seven years or more in prison. These samples, in the case of a crime, are then matched to samples collected from the scene of a crime. This data could then be used in courtroom trials, as well as to identify the missing and dead. While DNA technology has been used in other countries to provide compelling evidence in criminal cases, it could easily be misused in India, a country where law enforcement has previously been accused of "fake encounters' — wherein security forces murder suspects under the pretext of self-defense.

The DNA legislation has provoked a nationwide debate in India. Critics have noted that DNA collection and sampling is also a demanding undertaking in a country with a population of 1.3 billion. For me, however, it's the security concerns that are most problematic. The highly invasive potential of this technology could prove to be dangerous for the civil liberties — already under threat — of Indian citizens.

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Society

How Argentina Is Changing Tactics To Combat Gender Violence

Argentina has tweaked its protocols for responding to sexual and domestic violence. It hopes to encourage victims to report crimes and reveal information vital to a prosecution.

A black and white image of a woman looking at a memorial wall in Argentina.

A woman looking at a memorial wall in Argentina.

CC search
Mara Resio

BUENOS AIRES - In the first three months of 2023, Argentina counted 116 killings of women, transvestites and trans-people, according to a local NGO, Observatorio MuMaLá. They reveal a pattern in these killings, repeated every year: most femicides happen at home, and 70% of victims were protected in principle by a restraining order on the aggressor.

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Now, legal action against gender violence, which must begin with a formal complaint to the police, has a crucial tool — the Protocol for the Investigation and Litigation of Cases of Sexual Violence (Protocolo de investigación y litigio de casos de violencia sexual). The protocol was recommended by the acting head of the state prosecution service, Eduardo Casal, and laid out by the agency's Specialized Prosecution Unit for Violence Against Women (UFEM).

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