India uses rape as weapon of war in Kashmir

The eighty-ninth session of the United Nations ‘Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women’ (CEDAW) was opened by its Chairperson, Ms. Ana Peláez Narváez of Spain on October 7, 2024, in Geneva and will continue until October 25, 2024. CEDAW is the most important human rights mechanism to address the violation and discrimination against women. It has 23 experts who are appointed by the United Nations from all over the world.

The past couple of decades have seen initiatives by the United Nations in securing and mandating rights of women, including CEDAW established in 1979. CEDAW is mandated to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in all areas of life. In this connection various international conference have been held and well-intentioned and well worded resolutions and declarations have flowed from them. Some of these conferences included: Second World Conference on Women, which was held in Copenhagen in 1980; Third World Conference on Women, held in Nairobi in 985, and the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in1995.

The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, in 1993 in Vienna, Austria, confirmed the human rights of women as an ‘inalienable, integral and indivisible part of human rights.” In March 1994, in resolution 1994/45, the UN Commission for Human Rights called for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.

Without doubt, these resolutions could have been heartening news and encouraging words indeed if only the United Nations would have gone beyond its status of a drafting body and enacted its will.

These resolutions and diplomatic niceties do not matter to the women of Indian occupied Kashmir who are constantly faced with terror where 900,000 Indian occupation forces enjoy a free license to use rape as a weapon of terrorization and intimidation. Since 1990 alone, the Indian troops have gang-raped over 10,000 women, even brides on way to their new homes. The victim of rape suffers a stress, disorder, the rape trauma syndrome, which causes them to constantly relive her rape through a series of flashbacks, dreams, and body memories.

In 1995, Rene Degni-Segue, Special Rapporteur about human rights in Rwanda had noted that rape was being used as weapon of war.

The situation in Kashmir is no different. The rape is being used as a weapon of war to break down the will of the people of Kashmir to secure their fundamental right of self-determination.

The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR) issued its “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir,” on July 8, 2019. The report upholds that [In the 2013 report on her mission to India, the ‘Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women,’ its causes and consequences, said, “[W]omen living in militarised regions, such as Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern states, live in a constant state of siege and surveillance, whether in their homes or in public. Information received through both written and oral testimonies highlighted the use of mass rape, allegedly by members of the State security forces, as well as acts of enforced disappearance, killings and acts of torture and ill-treatment, which were used to intimidate and to counteract political opposition and insurgency.”]

The United Nations report further illustrated that, “One significant case that illustrates the state’s failure to investigate and prosecute allegations of sexual violence and addressing impunity for sexual crimes in Kashmir is the Kunan-Poshpora mass rape, which took place 27 years ago and for which attempts to seek justice have been denied and blocked over the years by the authorities at different levels. According to survivors and a local administration official, on the night of 23 February 1991, soldiers from the 4 Rajputana Rifles regiment of the Indian Army gang-raped around 23 women of Kunan and Poshpora villages of Kupwara district. The Indian Army and Government of India have denied the allegations”

“Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora” documentary evidence of five brave Kashmiri women scholars wrote these words on page 1, “This book is about one night in two villages in Kashmir. It is about a night that has refused to end for 24 long years, a night that holds stories of violations, injustice, oppression and falsehood, as well as acts of courage, bravery and truth. This book is about Kunan Poshpora.”

The five fearless authors began to evacuate the truth, by sifting through a web of lie and botched up investigations, by painstakingly building a bridge of trust and hope between the victims / survivors of Kunan Poshpora and the various courts of law where justice is meant to be dispensed.

The women of Kashmir wonder what action was taken by the ‘Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women,’ whose mandate included action on “state-sponsored violence against women.” They waited with hope because the same document had asked the United Nations human rights body to “strengthen mechanisms or accountability to ensure that governments take steps to end discrimination and punish perpetrators of violence against them.” (Reference UN documents: E/CN/4/1995/NGO/28, and /5). “

The women of Kashmir ask: Are these reports and revelations not enough to shake the conscience of the world powers and the Human Rights Council? The perpetrator of this state policy, India, has the temerity to sit not only in the Human Rights Council but also in the Security Council. Why does the international community not condemn India?

The women of Kashmir, especially those who have been violated against their will, only hope that the CEDAW and Special Rapporteur will take note of their sufferings. However, it will not make any difference until and unless the United Nations really acts on the findings of various international NGOs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, etc.in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

The time has come to end violence against women, and to remove the nuclear threat that now hovers on the South Asian horizon. Such scenario can only come when the Kashmir issue is resolved through peaceful negotiation between all parties concerned: Governments of India, Pakistan and the genuine leadership of the people of the state of Jammu & Kashmir.