View source for International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir

{{Infobox non-profit
| name            = International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir
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| purpose         = Investigation of [[Human right abuses in Jammu and Kashmir]]
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| founded_date    = 2008
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| origins         = 
| key_people      = Parvez Imroz, [[Angana P. Chatterji]], Gautam Navlakha and Zaheer-Ud-Din
| area_served     = [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]]
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| homepage        = {{URL|www.kashmirprocess.org}}
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'''International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir''' ('''IPTK''') is a People's Tribunal formed by Indian human rights activists for the purpose of probing [[Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir|human right violations]] in the Indian-administered territory of [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]], and bridging the gap between people living in [[Kashmiri people|Kashmir]] and rest of India. It was first convened in 2008 by [[Parvez Imroz]], [[Angana P. Chatterji]], [[Gautam Navlakha]] and Zaheer-Ud-Din.<ref name="Mallika Kaur">{{cite news|author=Mallika Kaur Sarkaria|title=On trial: human rights in Kashmir|url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-237943395|publisher=Kennedy School Review |via=|url-access=|accessdate=|date=22 March 2009}}{{dl|date=July 2021}}</ref> Chatterji served as convener until December 2012.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kashmirprocess.org/conveners.html|title=Conveners, Legal Counsel, and Liaison|website=kashmirprocess.org|access-date=2019-06-28}}</ref>

== Background ==
{{Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir}}
The Tribunal was first envisioned in 2006 when Parvez Imroz, a human rights activist, invited Angana Chatterji to Kashmir. From 2006–2008, Chatterji studied the Kashmir issue and interviewed the locals. Mallika Kaur, a scholar of [[Harvard Kennedy School]], while explaining the need of the Tribunal, said that there was no such mechanism for investigating the human right abuses in this hypermilitarized region.<ref name="Mallika Kaur"/>

The Tribunal's mandate does not include finding political solutions to resolve the Kashmir issue. Instead it includes recording and investigating crimes committed only in the part of Kashmir administered by India. According to Mallika Kaur the Tribunal did not include the [[Kashmir|Pakistani-administered Kashmir]] because it was set up by Indian citizens and access across the heavily guarded border is not possible. The Tribunal was also mandated to investigate how the violations of human rights by the militants intersect with those security forces.<ref name="Mallika Kaur"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kashmirprocess.org/premise.html|title=Premise and Objectives|website=www.kashmirprocess.org|access-date=2019-06-28}}</ref>

== Findings ==
In December 2009 the International People's Tribunal released a report titled ''Buried Evidence''.<ref name="Shujaat Bukhari">{{cite journal|title=The SHRC report on Jammu and Kashmir's enforced disappearances and mass graves puts the State and Central governments on the spot|url=http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2820/stories/20111007282003800.htm|accessdate=9 August 2013|magazine=Frontline|author=Shujaat Bukhari|volume=28|issue=20|date=24 September 2011}}</ref> The Tribunal alleges that the insurgency from 1989–2009 has caused more than 70,000 deaths.<ref name="TH: Mass Graves"/> According to Angana P. Chatterji, the convener of the Tribunal, they investigated fifty killings by the Indian Security Forces; except one all were declared militant. Of those who were killed in these incidents 39 were Muslims, four were Hindus and rest were of undetermined religious background. The Tribunal found that only one of those killed was a militant and the rest were killed in staged encounters.<ref name="Ania Loomba">{{cite book|title=South Asian Feminisms|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223517-9-5|pages=181–204|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wOr5rxXE5UcC&pg=PT188|author=Angana P. Chatterji|editor=Ania Loomba, Ritty A. Lukose|accessdate=9 August 2013|chapter=Witnessing as Feminist Intervention in India-Administered Kashmir|date=5 March 2012}}</ref> She further stresses the need of an independent inquiry into [[forced disappearance]]s and fake encounters, which according to her may result in some correlation of 8000 disappearances with the bodies in unmarked graves.<ref name="TH: Mass Graves"/> The Tribunal found 2700 (about 3000<ref name="Sanjay Kak">{{cite book|title=Until My Freedom Has Come: The New Intifada in Kashmir|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-1434164-7-0|pages=x-xi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7YOrcv1Bz0C&pg=PR11|author=Sanjay Kak|editor=Sanjay Kak|accessdate=9 August 2013|chapter=The Fire is at my heart}}</ref>) unknown and unmarked graves having 2900 bodies<ref name="TH: Mass Graves">{{cite news|title=Mass graves found in North Kashmir containing 2,900 unmarked bodies|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article59037.ece|accessdate=9 August 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|date=3 December 2009}}</ref> in three districts of Jammu and Kashmir.<ref name="Taipei Times: Graves">{{cite news|title=Kashmir mass grave sites mount, rights group says|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2009/12/04/2003460082|accessdate=9 August 2013|newspaper=Taipei Times|date=4 December 2009}}</ref> A gravedigger in a statement to the Tribunal said that he witnessed the burials of 203 people killed extrajudicially between 2002–2006.<ref name="Women News Network">{{cite web|title=Kashmir women seek justice in cases of disappeared people|url=http://www.trust.org/item/20121105112700-zqsn8/|publisher=Thomson Reuters Foundation|accessdate=9 August 2013|author=Women News Network|date=5 November 2012}}</ref> The Tribunal has criticized the [[United Nations]] and its members for failing to stop the fallout of the India's militarization in the valley.<ref name="TH: Mass Graves"/>

In December 2012 IPTK along with ''Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons'' released a report ''Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir'', which alleged involvement of about 500 [[Indian Armed Forces]] officials in [[Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir|human rights abuses in Kashmir]].<ref name="BBC: Indian officials">{{cite news|title=Indian officials accused of Kashmir rights abuses|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20624798|accessdate=9 August 2013|date=6 December 2013|agency=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="Karen Diep">{{cite journal|title=Report Alleges Abuse by Indian Officials in Kashmir|journal=Impunity Watch|date=7 December 2012|url=http://impunitywatch.com/report-alleges-abuse-by-indian-officials-in-kashmir/|accessdate=9 August 2013|author=Karen Diep|publisher=Syracuse University College of Law}}</ref> Those accused included three [[Brigadier]] rank officers of [[Indian Army]].<ref name="Ahmed Ali Fayyaz">{{cite news|title=Top Army, police officials involved in human rights abuse in Kashmir|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/top-army-police-officials-involved-in-human-rights-abuse-in-kashmir/article4171847.ece|accessdate=9 August 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|date=7 December 2012|author=Ahmed Ali Fayyaz}}</ref> The access to the official record available with the police along with interviewing the affected families helped in preparing the report, which took over two years to get completed.<ref name="Karen Diep"/> The report that alleges that the perpetrators of crimes in Kashmir are decorated instead of prosecuted, analysed 214 cases of abuse and further mentions 8,000 forced disappearances and 70 killings.<ref name="BBC: Indian officials"/><ref name="Ameer Tarin">{{cite news|title=Kashmir's tempestuous human right abuses|url=http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/editorial/2013/04/08/5679.html|accessdate=9 August 2013|newspaper=The Canadian – Agora Cosmopolitan|date=8 April 2013|author=Ameer Tarin}}</ref>

== Activities ==
In 2008 the Tribunal officials came under attack in the valley allegedly from Indian security forces. Besides spying and harassment of the tribunal, grenades were hurled at Parvez Imroz's residence in Kashmir on 30 June.<ref name="Mallika Kaur"/> The tribunal in a memorandum submitted to the government said that the use of landmines by the Indian Security Forces in the valley imperils the lives of civilian population.<ref name="Landmine Monitor 2009">{{cite book|title=Landmine Monitor 2009|date=October 2009|publisher=Mines Action|location=Canada|isbn=978-0-9738955-5-1|pages=931–932}}</ref> In June 2010 the tribunal presented its finding to the [[All-party parliamentary group|British Parliamentary Group on Kashmir]] (APPG-K).<ref name=CIIS>{{cite news|title=Angana Chatterji and Kashmir Tribunal at UK Parliament|url=http://alumni.ciis.edu/newsletter/index.asp?id=124|accessdate=9 August 2013|newspaper=California Institute of Integral Studies Newsletter}}</ref> The IPTK in November 2010 presented a memorandum along with other human rights organizations. The memorandum asked the [[US President]] [[Barack Obama]] as well as the international community to play their part in settling the Kashmir dispute that has been lingering on for six decades. Moreover, it asked Obama to raise the issue of Kashmir with [[Prime Minister of India|Indian premier]] [[Manmohan Singh]] and to not jeopardize this issue on the cost of improving relations with India.{{cn|date=December 2021}}

== Reception ==
The local people of the Kashmir valley  welcomed the Tribunal and offered their help even when they were threatened. The people according to Imroz were content that this issue is being taken up internationally. The [[European Parliament]] supported the Tribunal by inviting them to testify before [[European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights|Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights]] at [[Brussels]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kashmirprocess.org/press/20080717_EPHR_PR.html|title=17 July 2008: European Parliament Hearing on Kashmir|website=kashmirprocess.org|access-date=2019-06-28}}</ref> and adopting a resolution on allegations of mass graves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-0366+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN|title=Texts adopted – Thursday, 10 July 2008 – Kashmir – P6_TA(2008)0366|website=www.europarl.europa.eu|access-date=2019-06-28}}</ref> in 2008.<ref name="Mallika Kaur"/>

== See also ==
* [[Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir]]
* [[Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir]]
* [[Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society]]
* [[Kashmir conflict]]
* [[Rape in Jammu and Kashmir]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.kashmirprocess.org/ International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir ]

[[Category:Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir]]
[[Category:People's Tribunal]]