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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), along with other human rights organisations, call on Indian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez and to cease the persistent misuse of counter-terrorism laws to target civil society and suppress dissent.
18 June 2025 - On the eve of the 48th birthday of Khurram Parvez, a globally respected human rights defender from Indian-administered Kashmir, we, the undersigned organisations, renew
our call for his immediate and unconditional release. Khurram has now
spent over three and a half years in arbitrary detention under the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – an Indian
counter-terrorism law that has been widely condemned by experts and the
United Nations (UN) for violating legal rules and norms, including by
enabling prolonged pre-trial incarceration.
Khurram is the Program Coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition
of Civil Society (JKCCS) and former Chairperson of the Asian Federation
Against Involuntary Disappearances. He was arrested
on 22 November 2021 by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and
charged under multiple sections of the UAPA and Indian Penal Code. In
March 2023, he was further implicated in a second case, alongside
Kashmiri journalist and former JKCCS researcher Irfan Mehraj. The case, originally filed in October 2020, seeks to punish their human rights work as “funding terror activities” and the “propagation of secessionist agenda[s].”
In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued
an opinion ruling that Khurram’s detention was arbitrary and without
legal basis, and urging the government of India to release him
immediately and to provide reparation. Multiple other UN Special
Procedures have highlighted
Khurram’s case as a reprisal for his human rights work including his
engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms. They find his detention a
violation of binding international law, including the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Nonetheless, Khurram
continues to be held in a maximum-security prison in New Delhi, India.
Khurram’s continued incarceration is emblematic of Indian
authorities’ systematic criminalisation of human rights work, denial of
the rights to freedom of expression, and the silencing of dissent in
Indian-administered Kashmir. Khurram has for years documented human
rights violations, including in Indian-administered Kashmir. His work,
and that of JKCCS, is widely respected and recognised internationally,
as demonstrated by Khurram’s receipt of the Martin Ennals Award in 2023 and the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2006.
As Khurram marks another birthday behind bars, we, the undersigned
organisations, call on the government of India to immediately and
unconditionally release Khurram Parvez, as well as Irfan Mehraj and all
human rights defenders unlawfully imprisoned by Indian authorities for
their human rights work.
We urge Indian authorities to fully comply with their international
legal obligations, including by ending their ongoing and longstanding
abuse of counter-terrorism legislation to target civil society and
dissent.
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