Kashmir
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Countries of concern at the Human Rights Council
42nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Countries of concernCivic space restrictions often precede wider human rights abuses. In order to prevent further repression, we would like to draw the Council’s attention to the following:
Last year, several civil society organisations raised Tanzania’s worrying decline in respect for fundamental freedoms. Now, sweeping new legislation, rushed through its parliament in June, places new punitive restrictions on CSOs in the country. As the situation deteriorates further, the time left for the Council to take preventative action is running out.
In Honduras, the government’s violent response to peaceful protests have left at least three dead, including a 17-year-old student, and many more injured. Honduras has become one of the world’s most dangerous countries for human rights defenders facing constant violence, criminalization, and slander.
The past 40 days have seen severe restrictions to fundamental rights in Kashmir. Sweeping internet blackouts have had serious implications on freedom of expression and access to information. There have been reports of restrictions on movement and numerous ongoing arrests, including of activists, and we call on the Council to establish an independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations.
We are concerned that elections in Kazakhstan were marred by serious restrictions to freedom of peaceful assembly and of expression. Crackdowns on protests related to the elections, and persecution of journalists, marked yet another regressive measure to silence dissent in Kazakhstan.
Finally, CIVICUS remains deeply concerned about the situation in Saudi Arabia. At the last Council Session, we joined other CSOs to call for a monitoring mechanism in Saudi Arabia. No action has been taken, women human rights defenders remain detained, the space for participation remains virtually non-existent, and investigations into the killing of Jamal Kashoggi remained shrouded in lack of transparency. It is past time for the Council to take action on Saudi Arabia and we reiterate calls on the Council to address human rights violations with the utmost urgency.
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India: Arbitrarily detained Kashmiri prisoners must be freed
While recent steps taken by Indian authorities to decongest prisons in an effort to contain the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak are welcome, the Government should release all unjustly detained prisoners as a matter of priority.
The fate of hundreds of arbitrarily detained Kashmiri prisoners hangs in the balance as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in India passes the 4,000 mark and many more are likely to remain undetected or unreported.
Inmates and prison staff, who live in confined spaces and in close proximity with others, remain extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. While the rest of the country is instructed to respect social isolation and hygiene rules, basic measures like hand washing - let alone physical distancing - are just not possible for prisoners.
Under international law, India has an obligation to ensure the physical and mental health and well-being of inmates. However, with an occupancy rate of over 117%, precarious hygienic conditions and inadequate health services, the overcrowded Indian prisons constitute the perfect environment for the spread of coronavirus.
In a bid to contain the spread of the disease among inmates and prison staff, the Supreme Court asked state governments on 23 March 2020 to take steps to decongest the country’s prison system by considering granting parole to those convicted or charged with offenses carrying jail terms of up to seven years.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also called on governments to “examine ways to release those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, among them older detainees and those who are sick, as well as low-risk offenders.”
Various state governments in India have now begun releasing detainees. However, there is a concern that hundreds of Kashmiri youth, journalists, political leaders, human right defenders and others arbitrarily arrested in the course of 2019, including following the repeal of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on 5 August 2019, will not be among those benefiting from the measure. Article 370 provided special status to Jammu & Kashmir.
Human rights groups and UN experts have repeatedly called for the release as a matter of priority of “those detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views.”
Last month, the Ministry of Home Affairs revealed that 7,357 persons had been arrested in Jammu & Kashmir since 5 August 2019. While the majority have since been released, hundreds are still detained under sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and the Public Security Act (PSA), a controversial law which allows the administrative detention of any individual for up to two years without charge or trial. Reportedly, many of those still detained are minors.
Many of those detained were transferred to prisons all across India, thousands of kilometers away from their homes, hampering their lawyers’ and relatives’ ability to visit them. Some of the families, often too poor to afford to travel, have been left with nothing but concerns over the physical and psychological well-being of their loved ones.
Mr. Miyan Abdul Qayoom, a human rights lawyer and President of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court Bar Association, was also cut off from his family and lawyer. Detained since 4 August 2019 in India's Uttar Pradesh State, he was transferred to Tihar jail in New Delhi following a deterioration of his health. Mr. Qayoom, 70, suffers from diabetes, double vessel heart disease, and kidney problems.
Mr. Ghulam Mohammed Bhat was also transferred to a jail in Uttar Pradesh. In December 2019, he died thousands of kilometers away from his home at the age of 65 due to lack of medical care.
With the entire country in a lockdown and a ban on prison visits for the duration of the outbreak imposed, inmates are more isolated from the outside world than ever. In such a situation, prison authorities must ensure that alternative means of communication, such as videoconferencing, phone calls and emails, are allowed. However, this has not often been the case. Especially in Jammu & Kashmir, where full internet services are yet to be restored after a communication blackout imposed on the population on 5 August 2019, contacts between inmates and the outside world are even more limited.
The isolation of inmates from the outside world is even more alarming in light of the huge number of deaths in custody, pointing towards the use of torture and ill-treatment in Indian prisons. Allegations of torture and ill-treatment against Kashmiri prisoners as part of a decades-long pattern of abuses have been repeatedly denounced by human rights groups and UN bodies.
We remind Indian authorities that all measures designed to halt the spread of the virus must respect the fundamental human rights of every individual and we call on the Government to:
- Immediately release all arbitrarily detained prisoners, including journalists, human rights defenders, political leaders and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views, including Mr. Miyan Abdul Qayoom and all those arrested after 5 August 2019 in Jammu & Kashmir;
- Consider releasing those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, among them older detainees and those who are sick, as well as low-risk offenders;
- Provide adequate healthcare and implement preventive measures, such as the screening of all detainees and the confinement of vulnerable inmates, to ensure the safety of all prisoners and prison staff;
- Take measures to ensure that, upon release, inmates are medically screened and provided with adequate care and proper follow-up, including health monitoring;
- Ensure the availability to all prisoners of alternative measures to prison visits (e.g. video conferencing, more telephone access);
- Ensure that safeguards against torture and ill-treatment of people in custody, including access to lawyers and medical examinations, are maintained during the emergency; and
- Restore full access to high-speed internet in Jammu & Kashmir.
We would like to stress that these are not issues circumscribed to the coronavirus emergency. No one must ever be tortured, ill-treated, or arbitrarily deprived of their liberty. All prisoners must be able to enjoy decent detention conditions, have access to health care, legal representation and the support of their families, even in normal times.
These are not new issues. The Government of India must urgently address them, regardless of the threat of a global pandemic. A truly healthy society is one where fundamental rights are enjoyed by all, in time of crisis and beyond.
- Amnesty International India
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP)
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- International Commissions of Jurists (ICJ)
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
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India: Chronology of harassment against human rights defender Khurram Parvez
Human rights defender Khurram Parvez, 44, is the Programme Coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) which is a coalition of various campaign, research and advocacy organisations based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir which monitor and investigate human right abuses. He is also the Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD) a collective of non-governmental organisations from ten Asian countries that campaign on the issue of enforced disappearances.Khurram has documented serious human rights violations in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, including enforced disappearances and unlawful killings. He was detained in November 2021 and is accused ofbeing in contact with individuals linked to a Pakistani militant group. He is facing multiple charges under the Penal Code and draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA), related to conspiracy and terrorism, which CIVICUS believes have been trumped up by the authorities because of his activism.
He has faced systematic harassment to advocate against human rights violations in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir. In September 2016, the Indian authorities arrested him a day after he was barred from travelling to Switzerland to attend the 33rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was charged under the draconian Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows detention without charge for up to two years. He was released after 76 days in detention.
In October 2020, nine simultaneous raids were conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the houses and offices of several human rights defenders, non-governmental organisations and newspapers in Jammu and Kashmir - including the house of Khurram Parvez.
Updated September 2023
2021
22 November 2021: Officials from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), assisted by the local police, conducted raids on the house of Khurram Parvez and the JKCCS office in the city of Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, for approximately 14 hours. Parvez’s mobile phone, laptop, and several books were seized. On the evening of the same day, Khurram Parvez was taken for questioning to the premises of the NIA in Srinagar. At around 6pm, his family members received a phone call from NIA officers who requested them to bring him clothes. Upon arrival at the premises of the NIA they were given an arrest memo for Parvez, which was issued on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the NIA on 6 November 2021.
According to the arrest memo, Khurram Parvez faces charges of “criminal conspiracy”, “waging war against the government of India”, “punishment for conspiracy to wage war against the government of India” (Sections 120B, 121, and 121A of the Indian Penal Code, respectively), and “raising funds for terror activities”, “punishment for conspiracy”, “recruiting any person or persons for commission of a terrorist act”, “offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation” and “offence of raising funds for terrorist organisations” (Sections 17, 18, 18B, 38, and 40 of the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), respectively).
24 November 2021: Khurram Parvez was taken to New Delhi where he remained detained under NIA’s custody.
30 November 2021:Appeared at the NIA court.
2 December 2021: United Nations human rights experts expressed concern over the arrest of Khurram Parvez under the stringent UAPA anti-terror law and called for his release. They said: “We are concerned that one month after Mr. Parvez’s arrest, he is still deprived of liberty in what appears to be a new incident of retaliation for his legitimate activities as a human rights defender and because he has spoken out about violations.”
4 December 2021: Khurram Parvez appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court in New Delhi, after 12 days under NIA’s custody. Judge Parveen Singh extended his detention for another 20 days and ordered that he be transferred to the Tihar maximum security prison, in New Delhi.
25 December 2021: Judicial custody extended for 30 days until 21 January 2022.
2022
24 January 2021:Judicial custody extended for 40 days. His family was barred from meeting him due to COVID-19.
12 February 2022:The court extended his judicial custody for a further 40 days.
24 March 2022: An NIA Court extended his judicial custody for 50 days.
27 March 2022: The NIA carried out another raid of the residence of Khurram in Srinagar.
13 May 2022: The NIA filed a charge sheet against Khurram Parvez and seven others before the NIA Special Court in New Delhi. He was charged under Sections 120B and 121A of the Indian Penal Code (“criminal conspiracy” and “punishment for conspiracy to wage war against the government of India”, respectively), Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (“taking gratification, in order, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servant”) and Sections 13, 18, 18B, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) (“unlawful activities”, “conspiracy”, “recruiting any person or persons for commission of a terrorist act”, “offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation” and “giving support to a terrorist organisation”, respectively).
In the chargesheet the authorities accused him and others of supporting a Pakistan based proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to fund and recruit operatives for providing support in planning and execution of terrorist activities in various parts of India including Jammu & Kashmir.
21 June 2022: A resolution introduced in the US Congress House of Representatives condemning human rights violations in India highlighted the case of Khurram Parvez
6 July 2022: Khurram’s first hearing at the NIA Special Court in New Delhi took place. Lawyers were asked if they had received his chargesheet and other documents. The court also set the date for the next hearing
16 November 2022: Khurram's case was raised by the UN Secretary General in its report on reprisals against individuals seeking to cooperate or having cooperated with the UN, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights.
21 November 2022: One year anniversary of Khurram's detention. 12 NGOs issue a statement calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
22 November 2022: UN experts issued a statement stating that the arrest and detention of Khurram Parvez has a chilling effect on civil society, rights activists and journalists in the region, They reiterated their call for his immediate and unconditional release by the Indian Government.
2023
19 January 2023: Khurram Parvez won the Martin Ennals Award, one of the world’s most prestigious human rights prizes. The organisation said that Khurram “relentlessly spoke the truth and was an inspiration to civil society and the local population.”
13 March 2023: Khurram Parvez was interrogated by the NIA on two consecutive days in the week of 13 March 2023 in the Rohini High Security Prison in New Delhi.
20 March 2023: Kashmiri human rights defender and journalist Irfan Mehraj was arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the NIA in New Delhi on 8 October 2020, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). On the same day, the NIA published a press release framing the arrest of Irfan Mehraj as part of an “NGO Terror Funding Case”. The statement noted Irfan Mehraj was a “close associate of Khurram Parvez and was working with his organisation JKCCS”. The press release added that “investigations revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities in the valley and had also been in propagation of secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights”.
22 March 2023:Khurram Parvez was transferred from Rohini Central Prison to the Patiala House Court in New Delhi, where Irfan Mehraj was produced and arrested in this second case. Khurram was then remanded to the NIA’s custody for 10 days.
26 April 2023: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) searched Khurram's office in the Dandoosa area of the central Kashmir district.
5 June 2023: In an opinion adopted on 28 March 2023 and released on 5 June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) said Khurram's detention was “arbitrary”. It called on the Indian authorities to immediately release him and to provide him with an “enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.”
13 June 2023: A Delhi Court extended judicial custody of Khurram Parvez for another 45 days after the NIA sought more time to complete the investigation.
9 August 2023: Communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Indian government was published.
21 August 2023: Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj's cases were included in the Report of the Secretary-General on reprisals against human rights defenders that had cooperated with United Nations bodies
16 September 2023: NIA files a charge sheet against Khurram Parvez and Imran Mehraj accusing the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS) of allegedly funding terrorism
India is rated 'Repressed' by the CIVICUS Monitor.
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India: Crackdown continues in Jammu & Kashmir
Joint statement at the 43rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Our organizations express grave concern over the human rights situation in Jammu & Kashmir, where the authorities imposed severe restrictions after a decision to revoke constitutional autonomy on 5 August 2019, including one of the world’s longest internet shutdowns, which the Indian Supreme Court has said violates the right to freedom of expression.
Hundreds were arbitrarily arrested, and there are some serious allegations of beatings and abusive treatment in custody, including alleged cases of torture. Three former chief ministers, other leading politicians, as well as separatist leaders and their alleged supporters, remain in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and other abusive laws, many without charge and in undisclosed locations outside of Jammu & Kashmir. This violates fair trial safeguards of the criminal justice system and undermines accountability, transparency, and respect for human rights. Journalists and human rights defenders have been threatened for criticizing the clampdown. These violations, as those committed over the past decades, are met with chronic impunity.
We urge the government of India to ensure independent observers including all human rights defenders and foreign journalists are allowed proper access to carry out their work freely and without fear, release everyone detained without charge, and remove restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of movement, including where they have been denied the right to leave the country by being placed on the ‘Exit Control List’.
We also call on the governments of India and Pakistan to grant unconditional access to OHCHR and other human rights mechanisms to Kashmir.
We further urge the Council to establish an independent international investigation mechanism into past and ongoing crimes under international law and human rights violations by all parties in Kashmir, as recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Amnesty International
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
CIVICUS - World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Human Rights Watch
International Commission of Jurists
International Federation for Human Rights Leagues (FIDH)
International Service for Human Rights
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)This statement is also supported by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS)
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India: End reprisals against the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) & human rights defenders in Kashmir
Sixteen human rights organisations today called on the Indian authorities to immediately stop the reprisals against human rights defenders and organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, especially Khurram Parvez, Irfan Mehraj, and the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). Khurram Parvez[1] has been arbitrarily detained since 22 November 2021 as a reprisal for his human rights work, including documentation and advocacy in Jammu and Kashmir. We are alarmed by new criminal cases filed against Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj, a journalist and human rights defender, in March 2023, and the ongoing reprisals against JKCCS.
JKCCS is the leading human rights organisation in Jammu and Kashmir. Since the organisation was founded in 2000, it has conducted ground-breaking human rights investigations, published dozens of rigorously researched human rights reports, litigated human rights cases, and through non-violent mobilisation and advocacy given voice to otherwise unheard victims of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. The organisation’s research is widely considered to be authoritative by scholars, international civil society and the United Nations’ human rights experts, who have cited JKCCS’ work in their own reports on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Our organisations have also cited and referenced JKCCS’ work, which is invaluable in understanding the human rights situation of Jammu and Kashmir and is of exceptional quality.
Khurram Parvez is the Program Coordinator of JKCCS and the Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD). In February 2023, Khurram Parvez was the recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award. Irfan Mehraj previously worked as a researcher for JKCCS. In October 2020, the JKCCS office and Khurram Parvez’s home were raided by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), and devices and documents including his passport were seized. Indian authorities through targeted reprisals and criminalizing human rights work have made it impossible for JKCCS to continue its vital work. The charges brought by the NIA against Khurram Parvez include serious terrorism-related charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA),[2] a counter-terror law that violates international norms and is systematically used by Indian authorities to incapacitate and persecute human rights defenders and other dissenters.[3] The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, together with the Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism and many others, have previously raised grave concerns about the 2019 amendment to the UAPA because of the threat it poses to human rights defenders and the right to freedom of expression.[4]
In addition to the charges against Khurram under the UAPA, another case has been filed by the NIA in October 2020 which specifically targets JKCCS and anyone associated with the organisation. On 20 March 2023, the NIA arrested Irfan Mehraj forserious terrorism-related charges. Khurram Parvez, already imprisoned in the 2021 case, was also arrested in the JKCCS case.The NIA has publicly statedthat one of the grounds for Irfan Mehraj’s arrest was his close association with Khurram Parvez and JKCCS who were ‘funding terror activities in the valley and propagating secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights.’[5] Both human rights defenders remain detained in the maximum-security Rohini Jail in New Delhi. Khurram Parvez has been denied both release and bail despite widespread calls for his release.
Rather than upholding international legal obligations and protecting human rights, Indian authorities have explicitly criminalised JKCCS’ critical human rights work describing it as an organisation that publishes ‘anti-national and incriminating material to bring hatred, contempt and disaffection towards the Government of India’.[6] The Indian authorities have also carried out multiple raids at the residence and office of Khurram Parvez. His and Irfan Mehraj’s arrest highlights the determination of Indian authorities to criminalise and delegitimise human rights defenders and incapacitate and punish those like Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj who, in extremely difficult circumstances and at great personal cost, defend human rights. On 24 March 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, expressed her concern over the targeting of JKCCS and stated that the organisation ‘carries out essential work monitoring human rights. Their research and analysis of human rights violations are of huge value, including to international organisations seeking to ensure accountability and non-repetition of abuses.’[7]
There is a credible risk of increasing threats against JKCCS. In early March 2023, a week before Irfan Mehraj was arrested, the NIA interrogated Khurram Parvez for two consecutive days inside Rohini Jail, and threatened him and his colleagues with arrest in a new case. In their submissions to the Patiala House Court on 22 March when Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj were remanded, the NIA indicated that more persons are likely to be arrested in the same case.[8]
We call on the Indian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj, drop all charges against them and to end the ongoing persecution and targeting of human rights defenders in Jammu and Kashmir. Reprisals against human rights defenders in Jammu and Kashmir including human rights organisations and independent journalists are aimed at maintaining a forcible silence and facilitating continued impunity for violations in an intensely militarised region that the Indian government has made inaccessible to the international community and where grave human rights violations are longstanding and ongoing. The continued arbitrary detention of Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj, and the abuse of counter-terror and related laws to target human rights defenders is a violation of India’s international obligations and reinforces concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in India. India should protect human rights, not persecute human rights defenders. Indian authorities must immediately comply with their international legal obligations, allow civil society to freely operate in Jammu and Kashmir and India, and cease their longstanding obstruction of international civil society and inter-governmental organisations including the United Nations Special Rapporteurs and other human rights mechanisms which should have unfettered access to Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmiri detainees.
Signed
- Amnesty International
- Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN)
- Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Collectif des familles de disparus en Algerie (CFDA)
- Fédération Euro-méditerranéenne contre les disparitions forces (FEMED)
- Front Line Defenders (FLD)
- Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (FEDEFAM)
- FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED)
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
- Kashmir Law and Justice Project
- Martin Ennals Foundation
- Nonviolence International
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) - within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
[1] Parvez was recently recognized with the 2023 Martin Ennals award for human rights defenders in recognition of his decades-long efforts to document and seek accountability for human rights abuses despite grave personal risk.
[2] See FIDH & OMCT, Prominent rights defender Khurram Parvez is still in prison(Urgent Appeal), 17 May 2022, https://www.fidh.org/en/issues/human-rights-defenders/india-prominent-rights-defender-khurram-parvez-is-still-in-prison.
[3] See FIDH, FLD & OMCT, Joint submission for the Universal Periodic Review,31 March 2022, https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/india/india-joint-submission-for-the-universal-periodic-review-upr.
[4] See Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism et al, OL IND 7/2020, 6 May 2020, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25219
[5] See, Twitter, NIA India, NIA makes first arrest in NGO Terror Funding Case, 21 March 2023, https://twitter.com/NIA_India/status/1638104562879037442?s=20.
[6] See, NIA, Money transfer to J&K by NGOs through Hawala Channel for terrorist activities in Kashmir valley, Case RC-37/2020/NIA/DLI, 08 October 2020, https://www.nia.gov.in/case-detail.htm?363.
[7] See, OHCHR, Press Release, India: UN expert demands immediate end to crackdown on Kashmiri human rights defenders, 24 March 2023, https://srdefenders.org/india-un-expert-demands-immediate-end-to-crackdown-on-kashmiri-human-rights-defenders-press-release/
[8] See, National Investigation Agency (NIA), NIA chargesheets another overground worker in J&K terrorism conspiracy case, 21 March 2023, https://www.nia.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/PressReleaseNew/1422_1_Pr2.pdf
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India: Human rights defender Khurram Parvez marks 150 days arbitrarily detained on baseless charges
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Amnesty International condemn the way in which the authorities have targeted and harassed human rights defender Khurram Parvez through the misuse of the justice system, 150 days on, from his arbitrary detention. Our organisations call on the government of India to immediately and unconditionally release him and drop the baseless charges that have been brought against him.
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India: Release Khurram Parvez
Kashmiri human rights defender arbitrarily detained for 1,000 days
Indian authorities have arbitrarily detained Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez for over 1,000 days. Khurram remains incarcerated in a maximum-security prison in Delhi, India, in reprisal for his vital and commendable human rights work. We, the undersigned organisations, call once again for his immediate and unconditional release. We further demand an end to the Indian authorities’ relentless repression targeting Kashmiri human rights defenders, journalists, scholars and dissidents.
Khurram is the Program Coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a civil society organisation in Indian-administered Kashmir that has, due to repression, ceased to operate. He is also the Deputy Secretary-General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Chairperson of the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD). His longstanding human rights work has earned him widespread international recognition, including the Martin Ennals Award (2023) and the Reebok Human Rights Award (2006).
Khurram was arrested on November 22, 2021, by India’s counter-terrorism authority, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), on politically-motivated charges including “waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the government of India” as an act of reprisal for his human rights work. While imprisoned, Indian authorities arrested him again in March 2023 in a separate case on false charges of “terror financing” along with journalist and human rights defender Irfan Mehraj (who also remains arbitrarily detained in a maximum-security prison, now for over 500 days). Khurram had been imprisoned by Indian authorities previously and also been harassed and targeted by Indian authorities for years. In September 2016, he was prevented from attending the United Nations Human Rights Council and arbitrarily detained for 76 days.
Khurram’s continued arbitrary detention is emblematic of the Indian authorities’ escalating crackdown on human rights and civic space in Indian-administered Kashmir, including on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The ongoing crackdown by the Indian authorities is part of a wider pattern of human rights violations, often committed with impunity. The specific escalation targeting Kashmiri human rights defenders and journalists illustrated by Khurram’s and Irfan’s cases has shown that Indian authorities continue to commit grave and systematic violations with minimal scrutiny.
There has been widespread condemnation of the Indian authorities’ persecution of Khurram and Irfan, including by United Nations human rights experts and international civil society. The Indian government, however, has continued to respond with further violations and repression, labelling and prosecuting human rights defenders and journalists as terrorists. We demand that Indian authorities immediately and unconditionally release Khurram and Irfan, drop all charges against them and end the pattern of targeting of Kashmiri human rights defenders, journalists, scholars and dissidents. Indian authorities must immediately comply with their international legal obligations, including by allowing civil society to freely operate in Indian-administered Kashmir, and cease their longstanding obstruction of international civil society and inter-governmental organisations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Special Procedures and other human rights mechanisms, which should have unfettered access to Indian-administered Kashmir and Kashmiri detainees. The Indian government must halt its continuous crackdown and repression, while also guaranteeing transparent, independent and full accountability for human rights violations. The international community, especially the Member States of the UN, should urge the Indian government, both bilaterally and publicly, to stop criminalizing the defense of human rights in Indian-administered Kashmir.
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Signed:
- Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN)
- Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- Kashmir Law and Justice Project
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
