Announcement: Kashmir Tribunal: Human Rights/Justice
To: Sofia Qureshi <
sofiaq@gmail.com>
PRESS NOTE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
05 APRIL 2008
INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE IN INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR
www.kashmirprocess.orgSrinagar, 05 April 2008: The Public Commission on Human Rights, a constituent of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, with the support of other groups and individuals, announces the INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE IN INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR.
Stakeholders in civil society across Indian-administered Kashmir state
that they are engulfed by local, regional, and international
political processes that bypass them, withholding their right to
participation and decision-making. They note that Kashmir is a
flashpoint in conflicts between India and Pakistan, while the
systemic effects of existing structures of governance on the lives of
the people of Kashmir are silenced, trivialized, or rationalized as
necessary. They note that the fabric of militarization in
Indian-administered Kashmir profoundly affects their lives, while
undermining their capacity to intervene in the regularized violence
that results. Segments of civil society across Kashmir ask to be a
part of the international community, to have the right and resources
to speak to the conditions of their life. They state that their
portrayal in media and politics simplifies issues that are intricate,
and dehistoricizes them. They ask the international community to
participate in rigorously and thoughtfully engaging their experience
of protracted isolation and inquire into the diminishing of cultural
and public life.
Timeframe:
The Tribunal will hold its investigations and hearings in 2008-2009.
The Tribunal Conveners are:
Dr. Angana Chatterji, Convener. Dr. Chatterji is associate professor
of anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Advocate Parvez Imroz, Convener. Advocate Imroz is a human rights
lawyer and founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.
Mr. Gautam Navlakha, Convener. Mr. Navlakha works with the Economic
and Political Weekly and is a human rights defender.
Mr. Zaheer-Ud-Din, Convener. Mr. Zaheer-Ud-Din is chief editor of
Daily Etalat and vice president of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of
Civil Society.
The Tribunal Legal Counsel and Liaison are:
Advocate Mihir Desai, Legal Counsel. Advocate Desai is practising in
the Mumbai High Court and the Supreme Court of India, and co-founder
of the Indian People's Tribunal.
Mr. Khurram Parvez, Liaison. Mr. Parvez is programme coordinator for
the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.
Purpose and Mandate:
The Tribunal will inquire into the architecture of military presence,
militarization, and governance in Indian-administered Kashmir, and
their subsequent and continued impact on civil society, political
economy, infrastructure, development, local government, media,
bureaucracy, and the judiciary. The Tribunal proposes to inquire into
the actions of the Indian state and its institutions, as widely
established by human rights organizations, to examine the structure
of militaristic violence on the part of state institutions, and
examine conditions of injustice therein.
Speaking to the need for an International People's Tribunal in
Kashmir, Advocate Parvez Imroz stated: "This Tribunal goes beyond
condemnation. It initiates an international process that looks into
complex, systematic, and institutionalized repression in order to
engage global civil society in investigating crimes against humanity
in Indian-administered Kashmir. This process will inform struggles of
Kashmiris for human rights and justice."
In defining the urgency for an international tribunal, Dr. Angana
Chatterji stated: "Across India, Kashmir reverberates in the imaginary
as an icon of unification whose continued possession is a must for
the assertion of nationalist history and purpose. We call upon the
international community to join us in investigating India's record in
Kashmir, as India, an emergent superpower, argues for a seat on the
United Nations Security Council. We seek accountability under
provisions of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, Constitution of
India, and International Law and Conventions, to insist upon
reparations, justice, and self-determination."
Advocate Mihir Desai added: "The use of harsh laws, lack of
transparency, and virtual total impunity and disregard for
international law and failure of local institutions cry out for an
independent people's tribunal to inquire into the real situation in
Kashmir. The Tribunal seeks to unravel its impact and issues, so as
to bring out the true picture of Kashmir before the international
community."
Mr. Gautam Navlakha articulated: "As an Indian, 15 years of covering
the war in Jammu and Kashmir has convinced me that justice is not
available to the people who are aggrieved by the war being perpetrated
by the Government of India. It is, therefore, necessary that one
demystifies the lived realities of the people in order that the
real issues of people's democratic right to determine their destiny
is brought out as sharply as possible. It is therefore imperative
to set up a people's tribunal."
Realities in Kashmir, through neglect, indifference, or complicity,
continue to reproduce cycles of violence that are gendered and
classed, religious and ethnic in their effects, with ever increasing
social, political, economic, environmental, and psychological
consequences that affect private, public, and everyday life. The
Tribunal seeks to examine charges of, and expand awareness and
understanding regarding, institutionalized violence, social trauma,
and human rights abuses, and develop recommendations for justice,
reparations, and healing, in alliance with ethical, peaceable
grassroots processes and civil society groups and individuals
that dissent such conditions. Mr. Zaheer-Ud-Din explained
that: "The Tribunal proposes to inquire into instances of intense and
regularized violence, such as torture, gendered and sexualized
violence including rape, disablement, killings, executions, enforced
disappearances, interrogations, detentions, and devastations by
landmines." Further, the Tribunal proposes to inquire into if and
how this endangers the survival of the living, such as among Kashmir's
majority Muslim population, among women, 'half-widows', children, and
other disenfranchised groups, including the aged and people with
disabilities, and religious minority groups, and the effects on culture
and society at large in Kashmir, and related spheres in Jammu and Ladakh.
The Tribunal will investigate the ongoing and systemic nature of
violence, and the spiral of brutality. The Tribunal will inquire into
forms of disempowered, reactive, and violent resistances on the part
of groups engaged in militancy, and instances of outside
intervention. The Tribunal will inquire into the probable
intersections between the injustices perpetrated by Indian military
and paramilitary forces and those enacted by militants, deepening and
continuing cycles of repression in the process. Further, the Tribunal
will inquire into the activities of Hindu nationalist organizations.
The Tribunal will also inquire into forms of resistance mounted by
civil society, and the corresponding demands for justice from various
segments in Indian-administered Kashmir, including people's demand
for the right to self-determination, and its meanings.
Advocate Imroz stated: "The Tribunal will address growing concerns
with, and allegations of, breakdowns in social, political, cultural,
religious, gendered, and economic life in Indian-administered
Kashmir, that affect history and memory, spirit and future. In doing
so, the Tribunal seeks to increase concern, and ethical,
constructive, and creative participation of the local and
international community toward justice, peace, and security."
Mr. Navlakha clarified that: "Power politics recommends 'Truth and
Reconciliation Commissions' that seek forgiveness without justice. The
Tribunal maintains that there cannot be any reconciliation without
justice."
Advocate Desai clarified that: "The Tribunal will make distinctions
between the 'judicial' and 'extra-judicial' as drawn by the Indian
military and paramilitary forces and ask if and how the structure of
militarization furthers impunity, and impacts legal and moral
accountability on part of the state."
Dr. Chatterji stated: "The Tribunal will investigate the legal,
political, and militaristic apparatus through which 'states of
exception' have been established and are continued in
Indian-administered Kashmir. The repression of self-determination
struggles and genocidal violence has left 70,000+ dead and 8,000+
disappeared since 1989. Building on its mandate from the submissions
of civil society, this Tribunal calls on the international community
to recognize the juncture at which functions and failures of
governance intersect with the culture of grief in
Indian-administered Kashmir."
Why Indian-administered Kashmir?
The Tribunal will limit its primary investigations to
Indian-administered Kashmir, and selectively to Jammu and Ladakh,
even as issues in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and those of outside
groups that engage in militancy are of political, social, and
ethical significance. Also, access to areas that have experienced
heightened military presence and violations in Indian-administered
Kashmir remain limited, and, given the politics of borders, it is
only conceivable for organizations and individuals working in
Indian Kashmir to access areas restricted to its current borders
as defined by the Line of Control.
Parameters:
The Tribunal will confine its investigation to the period between
November 2003, when the Indo-Pak cease-fire began, and 2009, with
supporting investigations related to the period between 1989-2003.
The Tribunal is constituted as a people's collective, to undertake an
inquiry into the history of the present in Indian-administered
Kashmir through the participation of civil society, to reflect on the
past toward energizing public space in the present, and for
determinations of the future. Based on the conviction that people's
voices must not be silenced, this Tribunal will investigate existing
evidence, and hear statements and testimonials through public
processes that maintain transparency. The Tribunal will solicit the
participation of survivors, those seeking justice, local communities
and groups, and internal experts from Indian-administered Kashmir,
and from India and other places in South Asia, and the international
community. The Tribunal will rely on the willingness of those
affected and others to testify about experiences, events, and
circumstances, and on the participation of credible and competent
persons, and those not enacting political agendas. On completing its
work, the Tribunal will invite a group of renowned public figures to
constitute a Council of Justice to deliberate on the Tribunal's
findings, and craft their statements in response. The Tribunal's
findings and recommendations, and statements of the Council of Justice
will be presented at a public hearing in Indian-administered Kashmir,
and subsequently to the international community.
Note:
The Tribunal is a non-funded and voluntary initiative.
Press Contacts:
Mr. Khurram Parvez, Tribunal Liaison
Mobile: 91.9419013553 (Srinagar); Office: 91.194.2482820 (Srinagar)
E-mail:
khurramparvez@yahoo.com;
kparvez@kashmirprocess.orgDr. Angana Chatterji, Tribunal Convener
Mobile: 91.9906667238 (Srinagar)
Mobile: 001.415.640.4013 (United States); Office: 001.415.575.6119
(United States)
E-mail:
achatterji@ciis.edu;
Angana@aol.com;
achatterji@kashmirprocess.orgAdvocate Parvez Imroz, Tribunal Convener
Mobile: 91.9797221612 (Srinagar); Office: 91.194.2482820 (Srinagar)
E-mail:
p_imroz@yahoo.co.in;
pimroz@kashmirprocess.org 
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