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November
21, 2024 - On
November
22, 2024, Khurram
Parvez, a prominent Kashmiri human rights defender, will mark three
years of
wrongful
incarceration
on unsubstantiated charges of terrorism and related
offences.
His arrest is a deliberate
act of reprisal for his work documenting severe human rights
violations in Indian-administered
Jammu and Kashmir.
The continued judicial harassment of Khurram Parvez is a calculated
assault on civil society and dissent in Kashmir. We, the undersigned
human rights organisations, reiterate
our unequivocal calls for Khurram’s immediate and unconditional
release.
Khurram Parvez
has long championed justice and accountability for victims of human
rights abuses, at immense personal risk. He is the
Coordinator
of the
Jammu
Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
(JKCCS),
Chairperson of the Asian
Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD),
and
the Deputy Secretary-General of
the
International
Federation for Human Rights
(FIDH). His principled commitment to human rights has earned him
widespread international recognition, including the Martin
Ennals Award (2023)
and the Reebok
Human Rights Award
(2006). However, his work has consistently been met with systematic
retaliation from Indian authorities.
In 2016, Khurram was barred from attending
a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva and subsequently detained
under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act for 76 days—a
preventive detention law widely criticised for violating
international legal norms. The Jammu and Kashmir High Court later
ruled
his detention unlawful, underscoring its arbitrary nature. In
October 2020, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided
the offices of JKCCS, Khurram’s residence, and other locations,
just months after JKCCS published a report
detailing the human rights impact of Kashmir’s communications
blockade.
On November 22, 2021, this campaign of
repression intensified when Khurram was arrested by the NIA, on
politically motivated charges
under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of
1967—an anti-terror law notoriously used to persecute activists and
dissenters. Currently held in Rohini Jail in New Delhi, Khurram has
been repeatedly denied bail, subjected to prolonged pre-trial
detention, and slapped with
additional charges in
March 2023, linked to a First Information Report filed in 2020.
Irfan Mehraj, a Kashmiri journalist and human rights defender
associated with JKCCS, remains
detained on similar charges. Others linked to JKCCS continue to face
harassment, including frequent summons and interrogations.
As we mark the third anniversary of
Khurram’s detention, we are reminded of the ongoing systemic
repression in Kashmir. Since the revocation of Article
370 of the Indian
Constitution in 2019, which stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special
constitutional status, human rights violations have escalated, and
civil liberties have been severely curtailed, as also documented in
the
2024 FIDH report.
The abrogation has furthered state repression, facilitating the
unlawful targeting of human rights defenders like Khurram and
perpetuating a climate of fear.
We are in solidarity with Khurram Parvez,
his family, his colleagues, and all human rights defenders in
Kashmir. We demand his immediate and unconditional release, the
cessation of all retaliatory actions against him and JKCCS, and a
guarantee of protection from further reprisals. We call on the Indian
authorities to uphold their international human rights obligations,
cease the criminalisation of human rights work, and allow Khurram
Parvez to return home without delay.
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