Khurram Parvez, India
I am Khurram Parvez, a Kashmiri human rights defender. Currently, I am the Programme Coordinator for the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and the Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD). These organisations have documented serious human rights violations in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir for two decades, including enforced disappearances and unlawful killings.
I have faced systematic harassment and intimidation due to my work as a human rights defender. In 2016, I was arrested by the Indian authorities a day after being barred from travelling to Switzerland for the 33rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. I was charged under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), which permits detention without charge for up to two years. I was released after 76 days in detention.
On 22 November 2021, I was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges related to conspiracy and terrorism under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 (UAPA), a counter-terrorism law, including Section 17 (raising funds for a terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), 18B (recruiting of any person or persons for a terrorist act), 38 (offences relating to membership of a terrorist organisation and 40 (raising funds for a terrorist organisation).
UN experts have expressed concerns about the UAPA which have been routinely used by the government to detain human rights defenders. Individuals detained under the law are held in pre-trial detention for long periods.
India features on the a href="/https://monitor.civicus.org/watch-list/">CIVICUS Watchlist as a state with a severe decline in civic space and freedoms.
The CIVICUS monitor rates India as repressed.
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*This first-person narrative has been developed by CIVICUS based on Khurram's case
