Ershad Mahmud
The recently released 43-page report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir across the Line of Control addressed comprehensively almost all major aspects of the situation. It also recommended measures to improve human rights condition not only in the Indian-held Kashmir but also in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Echoing the last year’s report, the OHCHR urges both India and Pakistan to fully respect the right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir (including AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan) as prescribed by the international law.
The right to self-determination was hardly mentioned in the conversations taking place in the global arena since 9/11. In the aftermath of the deadly attacks, asking for the right to self-determination became synonymous with advocating secessionist movements and violent ideologies. In this background, reiteration of the demand for the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir is an encouraging development.
The protection of human rights and support for the oppressed people are embedded in the United Nations’ charter and mechanism since its inception. The OHCHR’s report is an attempt to revert to the basics and has the potential to significantly reorient the current discourse around the conflict.
The report indicates that international bodies are no longer willing to overlook the human rights violations in Kashmir under the pretext of terrorism or national interest. Increasingly, the human rights abuses are upsetting the conscience of the world and new strategies are under consideration which will make it impossible for perpetrators to go unpunished.
The report recommended the establishment of a commission to conduct a comprehensive and independent international investigation into the allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir. The UN has previously established inquiry commissions to probe crises in Gaza Strip, Syria and Darfur.
The formation of an inquiry commission might nudge authorities to halt the usage of out-of-proportion military might to quell protests and punish stone pelters in the Kashmir Valley. Lamentably, the human rights situation in the Indian-held Kashmir is worsening day by day with security forces using military muscles with impunity. The report says, “No security forces personnel accused of torture or other forms of inhuman treatment have been prosecuted in a civilian court since these allegations started emerging in the early 1990s.”
To improve human rights conditions, the OHCHR recommends that the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 be repealed immediately.
The report also exposes how common people are being tortured and humiliated in everyday life. Ironically, several laws are being used for cover-up of these offenses by the security forces. The report says the Indian authorities have not attempted to address serious concerns about hurdles in access to justice, and impunity for human rights violations committed in Jammu and Kashmir. The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 (AFSPA) remains a key obstacle to accountability.
To improve human rights conditions, the OHCHR recommends that the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 be repealed immediately. It also wants end to compulsion of taking prior permission from the central government to prosecute security forces personnel accused of human rights violations in the civilian courts.
Women the worst victims
Kashmiri women have borne the brunt of conflict. Cases of sexual violence have been appearing in vernacular media since 1990 but no tangible steps were taken to bring the offenders to the task. Thus, the report suggests to “investigate and prosecute all cases of sexual violence allegedly perpetrated by state and non-state actors and provide reparations to the victims.”
The report also shows concern over the shrinking spaces for civil society and right groups’ activities, as well as the growing clampdown on the dissenting voices in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. The report highlights the constitutional ambiguities and contradictions which limit the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and association.
Since 2006, Azad Jammu and Kashmir has been showing up on the international radar. Human Rights Watch, a US-based watchdog, published a long report on AJK wherein Islamabad’s treatment of AJK was criticised. A few months later, Baroness Nicholson, Rapporteur on Kashmir appointed by the European Union Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, ripped apart the myth of Azad Kashmir being a prosperous and content region.
It is a matter of concern that political groups in AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan complain that they are being watched and monitored to ensure political and administrative control over the two regions.
However, New Delhi does not recognise any external intervention vis-à-vis Kashmir. But these reports have opened up a Pandora’s box and more and more reports and articles are expected to appear in the media which will certainly discuss the Kashmir situation intensely.
For instance, The New York Times published a long article on July 6, featuring several victims of torture in the Kashmir Valley. A month ago, Srinagar-based Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society published a 560-page report on issues related to the illegal torture and harassment of the Kashmiris, making headlines worldwide.
Kashmir under siege
Meanwhile another report on human rights situation in India-held Kashmir reveals that torture is deliberately being used by the state forces as an instrument to repress the resistance struggle.
The report jointly published by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society exposes the unholy nexus between judiciary and law enforcing agencies in committing rights violations without fear of accountability. It says that torture is used as a matter of policy by the Indian state in Jammu and Kashmir, exercising it through all the institutions of the state — legislature, executive, judiciary and armed forces.
The report thoroughly examines the state of human rights abuses, specifically 432-cases of torture since 1990 in the India-held Jammu and Kashmir. The momentous report provides insights about the use of physical and mental torture as a tool to subdue the dissenting voices in Kashmir for decades.
It is clearly the first-ever report of its kind that presents perturbing and worrying evidence, in specific cases of alleged brutal torture such as electrocution, water boarding and even sexual torture of the civilians.
The report documented dozens of cases of extrajudicial killings, murders, extortions including stripping the detainees naked, beating them with sticks, iron rods or leather belts, roller treatment, water boarding, electrocution including of genitals, hanging from the ceiling, mostly upside down, burning of the body with hot objects, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, sexual torture including rape and sodomy by the state apparatus.
Sadly, the report acknowledges that due to legal, political and moral impunity extended to the armed forces, not a single prosecution has taken place in any case of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. It also points out that the major victim of state repression, almost 70 percent, have nothing to do with the violent groups. They are common citizens including women, students and juveniles, political activists, human rights activists and journalists.
The report documented dozens of cases of extrajudicial killings, murders, extortions including stripping the detainees naked, beating them with sticks, iron rods or leather belts, roller treatment, water boarding, electrocution including of genitals, hanging from the ceiling, mostly upside down, burning of the body with hot objects, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, sexual torture including rape and sodomy by the state apparatus.
Thirty-six of the 432 torture victims (and their families) studied live in abject poverty as a result of loss of livelihood or death of the family breadwinner due to torture. Of these 36 families, members of four families died as a result of torture.
Since last year, India’s violation of human rights in Kashmir, particularly endless cycle of torture and ill-treatment has come under global scrutiny. Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) has been criticising excessive use of force since 1990 when popular uprising erupted in the Kashmir valley.
The recent report of Kashmiri organisation also echoes the UNHCR report and recommends an international investigation into torture in Kashmir, led by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, besides urging India to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and end the phenomenon of torture.
The sane voices in India also suggest New Delhi to engage with Kashmiris in order to deal with the present situation, and shun the policy of arms twisting and bullying the resistance movement. The Hindu’s editorial while commenting on the report suggests: “The government must press for due process and justice in each of these. Eventually, India will be judged not only by how close it stands to the world’s most powerful countries, but how much the state extends itself to the most vulnerable within its own boundaries.”
These indigenous reports are the tip of the iceberg. It might play a role in awakening empathy for the people of Kashmir who are embattled in an unending conflict for over seven decades.
Juan E. Mendez, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and presently Professor of Washington College of Law, wrote the report’s introduction which is widely cited by the international media. He characterised the report as an outstanding example of a human rights organisation’s endeavour to bring the facts to the world. “It will serve as a model for other civil society organisations in India and in other countries, for its dispassionate and precise language, even when discussing tremendously tragic suffering,” he maintains.
Source: TNS (The News on Sunday), July 21, 2019
Thursday, September 05, 2019
