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FREMONT, CA – In partnership with REDRESS, the Human rights advocate group Ensaaf, submitted a report to UN’s Universal Periodic Review on mass
cremations,
enforced
disappearances
and
extrajudicial
killings
carried
out
in
Punjab, India
during
the
1980s
and
1990s.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process, under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. India’s first review was conducted in 2008. During that review, States encouraged India to ratify the UN Convention
on
Enforced
or
Involuntary
Disappearances
and
the
UN Convention
against
Torture
and
Other
Cruel,
Inhuman
or
Degrading
Treatment
or
Punishment.
The Ensaaf/REDRESS joint submission discusses
the
failure
of
the
Government
of
India
to
hold
the
individuals
responsible
for
these
violations
to
account
and
to provide
victims
with
effective
remedies
and
full
reparation. It focuses on the mass cremations case:
In
1995,
human
rights
activists
used
government
records
to
reveal
that
security
forces
had
secretly
and
illegally
cremated
over
6,000
individuals
in
three
crematoria
in
Amritsar
district—then
one
of
thirteen
districts
in
Punjab.
In
1997
India’s
National
Human
Rights
Commission
(NHRC)
was
empowered
by
the
Supreme
Court
to
examine
the
role
of
state
actors
in
the
perpetration
of
these
human
rights
violations
and
to
provide
redress
to
victims
and
their
beneficiaries.
However,
despite
its
powers
to
do
so,
and
despite
substantial
evidence
of
systematic
human
rights
violations
presented
to
it
by
victims,
the
NHRC
failed
to
establish
the
extent
of
human
rights
violations
and
to
provide
victims with an adequate remedy and reparation.
The submission ends with a list of recommendations to India that include, among others: establishing an independent monitoring mechanism to ensure accountability of the NHRC in this case; prosecuting the individuals responsible for these violations; repealing legal provisions that provide immunity to security forces for human rights violations; and ensuring access for survivors to effective remedies and full reparation.
REDRESS is a human rights organization that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation. REDRESS works with survivors to help restore their dignity and to make torturers accountable.
Ensaaf is a nonprofit organization working to end impunity and achieve justice for mass state crimes in India, with a focus on Punjab, by documenting abuses, bringing perpetrators to justice, and organizing survivors.
Source: Panthic.org (http://www.panthic.org/articles/5407) – 12/1/2012