India abrogated special status to make disputed J&K’s population grapple for basic rights, says Geneva based study

A 91-page study released by Geneva-based by Arete Academy Geneva titled “Indian Atrocities and Violations of Human Rights” says, “The disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir is one the key concerns for the Indian government regarding maintenance of peace and social order.”

According to Kashmir Media Service, the study conducted by renowned scholars; Lina Radwan El Dana and Raazi Muhammad Jaabir maintained that Indian constitution is stated to be “a secular and also speaks about equality of every citizen and provision of human rights. There seems to be difference in what is actually stated in the constitution of the country and what in real the international community has observed.”

“Indian government has promulgated laws which are only applicable in Kashmir and assists the deployed armed forces for undue arrest, detention without information to the court, physical torture and take control of the land. Repealing Article 370, from the Indian constitution has abrogated the special status of the Kashmir and has set the population to hang free for basic human rights and nationality of the land.”

“Other than the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the international community has also noticed and raised concerns over the contemporary uprising of the farmers in the Indian Punjab because of controversial legislature to influence farmers. Moreover, the situation of human rights in North Eastern Indian states is equally alarming and people of these states are going through the worst phase with regards to protection of their human rights. Scheduled castes especially Dalits and minorities including Christians, Muslims and Sikhs are also the victims of oppression and heavy handedness of Modi regime.”

“Not limiting to the promulgation of laws, the state has also put restrictions over freedom of expression and speech. At multiple stances journalists and common citizen of the land were arrested for freedom of expression. International humanitarian organizations have reported deaths during the police custody; frequent rape cases of girls and females; use of force on minorities; disclination of citizens based on religion and caste; suppression of women rights; limited access to healthcare; illiteracy; poverty; and lack of basic human right to huge number of populations of the state.”

“OHCHR has been in touch with India and have sent multiple communications over different thematic areas of human rights but so far, the country has shown limited response to fairly adopt and implement serious recommendation of the reviewing states, which includes repulsion of objectionable laws, provision of rights to minorities, non – discrimination of citizen and gender equality.”

Lina Radwan El Dana is a psychologist working with Arab NGO. Managing human rights projects, responsible of Human Rights sector, by preparing, coordinating and following with the participants who will attend the Hunan Rights sessions and send reports for each session in addition to submitting report to the UPR sessions and following the recommendations and sending petitions when it is needed.

On the other hand, Raazi Muhammad Jaabir is an International Human Rights specialist from Sri Lanka. He is specialised in Civil & Political rights focusing on minorities. He has done various projects with NGOs on illegal land acquisition, rural development, civil and political rights, economic and cultural rights and gender equality. His areas of interests are religious rights of minorities, Islamophobia, child rights and rights of the displaced people. Raazi is specialised in international human rights law and currently working as a consultant at Verite, South East Asia.