Amartya Kanjilal is a New Delhi based human rights lawyer and researcher. He has worked extensively on the rights of prisoners sentenced to death, providing legal representation to several death row prisoners in the courts. He is an advocate with the Centre on the Death Penalty at the National Law University, Delhi. Amartya has also researched and written extensively on issues of carcerality, criminal law reform and constitutional law in the Indian context. 

Drawing on experiences representing individuals on death row, this talk will examine criminal punishment as a deeply contested site, shaped by the competing influences of human rights, constitutional guarantees of prisoners, civil society interventions, retributive and deterrent interests of the stare, and a vacillating judiciary.

This event is part of the Human Rights in Asia Series sponsored by The Mellon Humanities for All Times and Crime, Law & Justice Studies.

Refreshments and snacks will be provided.