This is an article by The South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre (a network of individuals that seeks to investigate, document, and disseminate information about human rights) on the Indian government’s deliberate move to avoid investigations into human rights abuses in Kashmir. The blanket refusal by forces in Indian-Administered Jammu and Kashmir to investigate or release the identities of bodies buried in unmarked and mass graves is a gross violation of international law that India has been able to commit with impunity.

Topics: background, prohibition on enforced disappearances, the way forward, conclusions
Terms: failure of international accountability, failure of domestic accountability, legalized impunity, violation of international human rights law, extrajudicial killings, mass graves, failure of judicial system, failure to conduct judicial reviews, Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights (IPTHR), fake encounters, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance

This report details the results of a 50-village field survey on human rights violations suffered by the local population conducted by trained, on-the-ground, local researchers. The results show that the people of these villages were severely brutalised over a long period of time, from 1990-2011, by being repeatedly subjected to torture (including violence against women), forced labour, disappearance, and death. The means of livelihood for the people in the 50 villages were also jeopardised through land occupation and militarisation, including the militarisation of civic spaces.

Topics: demographics, killings and enforced disappearances, religion of those killed, worst years, affiliation of those killed, perpetrators, disappearances, torture, places of torture, forced labour, custodial killings, disability, rape and molestation, militarisation, destruction of religious places, destruction of property

Terms: history of violations, torture, violence against women, forced labor, enforced disapperance, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Jammu and Kashmir Police, Government-sponsored gunmen, unidentified gunmen, religious trageting, violation of right to life, custodial torture, custodial rape, extrajudicial killings, occupation of land, destruction fo property, destruction of mosques, destruction of temples, denial of access to justice, denial of remedy

This is a communication of two UN Special Rapporteurs (on freedom of opinion and human rights defenders) to the Government of India addressing the abduction and gang rape of a woman by Indian forces.

Topics: violence against women, rape, gang rape, sexual violence, abduction, illegal imprisonment, torture
Terms: 62nd Rashtriya Rifles, July 2011 Kulgam gang rape

This is a communication of two UN Special Rapporteurs (on extrajudicial executions and torture) to the Government of India expressing grave concern regarding multiple custodial killings.

Topics: torture, extrajudicial execution, custodial killing
Terms: custodial torture and killing of Nazim Rashid Shalla, Saidul Mondal and Salam Sanjoy, police killing, Border Security Force (BSF) killing

This report examines the situation of women in Indian-Administered Kashmir whose husbands have disappeared but not yet been declared deceased. This report draws on the experiences of half widows to capture an often unseen and pernicious face of insecurity in Kashmir. It identifies how this population provides an immediate opportunity for meaningful engagement. It makes recommendations to law and policy makers as well as to local, national, and international actors for concrete steps to ameliorate the lives of half widows and the people of Kashmir.

Topics: insecurity in Jammu and Kashmir, gendered violence, civic action, peace building, half widows’ state of perpetual limbo, economic hardship, social challenges, children, (un)available remedies, local action by and for half widows, recommendations to the government, recommendations to civil society

Terms: half-widows, enforced disapperances, violation of right of habeas corpus, denial of access to justice, failure to investigate violations, failure to remedy violations, failure to provide economic support, violation of economic rights, post-traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress affecting minors, gender-based violence, violence against women