Comprehensive report on torture in Kashmir from the 2017 Rafto Laureates

20.06.2019

The report "Torture Indian State's Instrument of Control in Jammu and Kashmir", focuses on torture perpetrated by the Indian State since 1990, and provides a contextual understanding of various phases of torture being perpetrated in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947. Using 432 case studies, the report charts out trends and patterns, targets, perpetrators, sites, contexts and impacts of torture in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Rafto Foundation has since 2017 supported the work of the prize recipients JKCCS and APDP. In 2018, Ahangar and Imroz contributed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Report with thorough documentation of forced dissapearances and attacks, and the report was considered to be pioneering work in shedding light on human rights violations in Kashmir.

"The JKCCS report on torture corroborates the grave allegations presented in the seminal OHCHR report on the human rights situation in Kashmir of June 2018, and cries out for response by the international community.”, says Iver Ørstavik, Senior Advisor at the Rafto Foundation.

Due to legal, political and moral impunity extended to the armed forces, not a single prosecution has taken place in any case of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. The report recommends for an international investigation on torture in Kashmir, led by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, besides urging India to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and end the phenomenon of torture.