In December 2025, Indian authorities continued to commit grave human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian authorities continued their recently escalated, ongoing, systematic campaigns of mass detention and raids, conducting hundreds of additional raids and cordon-and-search operations and detaining several hundred additional people, including the prominent political activists Shakeel Bakshi and Javid Mir. Indian authorities materially enhanced their ongoing, systematic denial of free expression, including through banning Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and numerous detentions for using VPN applications. Indian authorities escalated their ongoing, systematic campaign of property expropriation through additional land seizures for railway and military infrastructure projects and for purposes of trans-national repression, specifically targeting activists Tony Ashai, Dr. G. N. Fai, Mubeen Shah and Rifat Wani for their advocacy work.
Numerous Kashmiri journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and dissenters continue to be arbitrarily detained. Emblematic cases include those of human rights defender Khurram Parvez—illegally imprisoned for over four years (1,523 days), journalist Irfan Mehraj—illegally imprisoned for almost three years (1,039 days), human rights lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom—illegally imprisoned for nineteen months (577 days) and scholar Shafat Wani—illegally imprisoned for over nine months (288 days).

In November 2025, Indian authorities continued to commit grave human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir (IAK). Indian forces killed at least two people. Indian authorities substantially escalated their ongoing systematic campaigns of mass detention, raids and property expropriations, conducting hundreds of raids and cordon-and-search operations and detaining thousands of people, targeting, among others, scholars, physicians, their families and associates as well as people and locations allegedly affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir. Indian authorities further escalated the suppression of press freedom through enhanced surveillance and data gathering on journalists and completed their longstanding crackdown on Kashmir Times.
Numerous Kashmiri journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and dissenters continue to be arbitrarily detained. Emblematic cases include those of human rights defender Khurram Parvez—illegally imprisoned for over four years (1,507 days), journalist Irfan Mehraj—illegally imprisoned for almost three years (1,023 days), human rights lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom—illegally imprisoned for over a year and a half (561 days) and scholar Shafat Wani—illegally imprisoned for over nine months (272 days).

This is the joint written contribution by Kashmir Law and Justice Project and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) for review of India under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women—94th Pre-sessional Working Group (27-31 October 2025)). It highlights two interrelated dimensions of women’s rights in Indian-administered Kashmir (IAK). First, it documents how women in IAK, alongside the broader population, are deprived of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Convention–such as freedom of movement, access to justice, participation in public and political life, and the rights to health and education. Second, it underscores how women experience distinctive and compounded harms within this system of repression, including sexual violence, gendered stereotyping, economic marginalization, and barriers to redress. By presenting both the generalized denial of rights and the specific forms of gendered harm, this report seeks to assist the Committee in holding India accountable to its obligations under CEDAW.

In October 2025, Indian authorities continued to commit grave human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir (IAK). Indian forces killed at least two people in IAK. Indian authorities continued their systematic campaigns of mass arbitrary detention, raids, collective punishment and property expropriation.
Numerous Kashmiri journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and dissenters continue to be arbitrarily detained. Emblematic cases include those of human rights defender Khurram Parvez—illegally imprisoned for four years (1,457 days), journalist Irfan Mehraj—illegally imprisoned for over two and a half years (973 days), human rights lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom—illegally imprisoned for almost a year and a half (511 days) and scholar Shafat Wani—illegally imprisoned for over seven months (218 days).

In September 2025, Indian authorities continued to commit grave human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir (IAK). Indian forces killed at least eleven people and continued their systematic campaigns of mass arbitrary detention (at least 70 new detentions reported), raids and property expropriation. Indian authorities denied funeral rites to the family of Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, blocked over 300 additional social media accounts and installed the Ashoka emblem at the Hazratbal mosque/shrine (and detained people who protested). Efforts to criminalize human rights work, erase documentation of violations and impunity and manufacture false history in IAK accelerated, including through the publication and promotion of a propagandistic attack on landmark human rights work on enforced disappearances and unmarked graves in IAK.

Numerous Kashmiri journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and dissenters continue to be arbitrarily detained. Emblematic cases include those of human rights defender Khurram Parvez—illegally imprisoned for almost four years (1,430 days), journalist Irfan Mehraj—illegally imprisoned for over two and a half years (946 days), human rights lawyer Mian Abdul Qayoom—illegally imprisoned for over one year (484 days) and scholar Shafat Wani—illegally imprisoned for over six months (195 days).