Welcome Report on Kashmir

People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) welcomes the release of the study “Alleged Perpetrators” by the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir (IPTK) and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) on the culture of impunity, which is ubiquitous in Jammu and Kashmir. PUDR acknowledges that this is the first ever study in India which has broken the cover of anonymity that protects the perpetrators by raising the principle of “individual criminal responsibility” which is well established under International Criminal Law starting with Nuremburg Trials and several UN tribunals.

Equally, it raises the principle of command responsibility and principle of joint criminal enterprise which too forms part of international criminal law. The state “authorisations” to the armed forces to carry out every kind of operation are often without adherence to laws and norms under draconian legislations such as the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA) on the pretext of combating militant violence. They are simultaneously in breach of bringing India’s domestic laws in line with international conventions such as against torture, enforced disappearance and genocide compounds the impunity extended to the security forces because certain crimes are non-justiciable under domestic law.