UN envoy calls for repeal of security laws in Indian Kashmir
UN envoy says Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act should be abolished.
NEW DEHLI:
A UN envoy, on a human-rights mission this month to India, on Friday called for reforms including the repeal of laws giving security forces wide powers of arrest in Indian Kashmir.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya told a news conference in New Delhi that during her 11-day tour of five Indian states, including Kashmir, she had been told of many abuses.
“I heard numerous testimonies about male and female rights defenders, and their families, who have been killed, tortured, ill-treated, disappeared, threatened, arbitrarily arrested and detained,” she said.
In particular, Sekaggya called for an end to two laws applied in India’s northeast and in troubled Kashmir region that have proved to be a sticking point in New Delhi’s attempts to negotiate with Kashmiri separatists.
“The Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act should be repealed, and application of other security laws which adversely affect the work of human rights defenders should be reviewed,” she said.
Sekaggya urged India to extend a “healing touch” to residents of the strife-torn region, “to end the suffering”.
“I don’t know whether one wants to call rights violations state-sponsored (in Kashmir) but they are there,” she added.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan territory was rocked by violent demonstrations against Indian rule last summer that left 114 people dead – most shot by police and paramilitary forces.
According to an official count, 47,000 people have died in over two decades of rebellion against New Delhi’s rule.
Sekaggya also said that “state agents” were targeting activists opposing giant industrialisation projects elsewhere in India, a fast-growing country of 1.2 billion people.
“In the context of India’s economic policies, defenders engaged in denouncing development projects that threaten or destroy land, natural resources and livelihood of their community or of other communities have been targeted by state agents and private actors,” she said.
Acquisition of farmland for industry is a sensitive topic in India, nearly two-thirds of whose people depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
“I am particularly concerned at the plight of human rights defenders working for the rights of marginalised (low-caste) people, tribes, religious minorities and sexual minorities,” she added.
Sekaggya said she was “troubled by the branding and stigmatization of rights defenders who are labeled ‘Maoists’, ‘militants’, ‘insurgents’, ‘anti-national’ and ‘members of the underground’.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2011.
A UN envoy, on a human-rights mission this month to India, on Friday called for reforms including the repeal of laws giving security forces wide powers of arrest in Indian Kashmir.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya told a news conference in New Delhi that during her 11-day tour of five Indian states, including Kashmir, she had been told of many abuses.
“I heard numerous testimonies about male and female rights defenders, and their families, who have been killed, tortured, ill-treated, disappeared, threatened, arbitrarily arrested and detained,” she said.
In particular, Sekaggya called for an end to two laws applied in India’s northeast and in troubled Kashmir region that have proved to be a sticking point in New Delhi’s attempts to negotiate with Kashmiri separatists.
“The Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act should be repealed, and application of other security laws which adversely affect the work of human rights defenders should be reviewed,” she said.
Sekaggya urged India to extend a “healing touch” to residents of the strife-torn region, “to end the suffering”.
“I don’t know whether one wants to call rights violations state-sponsored (in Kashmir) but they are there,” she added.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan territory was rocked by violent demonstrations against Indian rule last summer that left 114 people dead – most shot by police and paramilitary forces.
According to an official count, 47,000 people have died in over two decades of rebellion against New Delhi’s rule.
Sekaggya also said that “state agents” were targeting activists opposing giant industrialisation projects elsewhere in India, a fast-growing country of 1.2 billion people.
“In the context of India’s economic policies, defenders engaged in denouncing development projects that threaten or destroy land, natural resources and livelihood of their community or of other communities have been targeted by state agents and private actors,” she said.
Acquisition of farmland for industry is a sensitive topic in India, nearly two-thirds of whose people depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
“I am particularly concerned at the plight of human rights defenders working for the rights of marginalised (low-caste) people, tribes, religious minorities and sexual minorities,” she added.
Sekaggya said she was “troubled by the branding and stigmatization of rights defenders who are labeled ‘Maoists’, ‘militants’, ‘insurgents’, ‘anti-national’ and ‘members of the underground’.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2011.