November 25th is being observed as an International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In his message Mr. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations said on November 21, 2024, that, “The epidemic of violence against women and girls shames humanity…Horrendous sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war. And women and girls face a torrent of online misogyny. The situation is compounded by a growing backlash against women's and girls’ rights. Too often, legal protections are being rolled back, human rights are being trampled, and women’s human rights defenders are being threatened, harassed and killed for speaking out.”
I agree with the assertion of Mr. Guterres in recognizing the guilt of the shameful act of rape. The violence against women in Kashmir is a case in point where 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 devastating impact of the Kashmir conflict has left over 30,000 widows and over 90,000 children orphaned. Several thousand Kashmiri girls and women have been the target of sexual crimes at the hands of Indian armed forces. Directly or indirectly, it would be safe to assume that the lives of over 50,000 women have been affected by the atrocities of the Indian army since 1989. Amnesty International, human rights organizations and other international NGO’s have documented incidents of gang rape of young girls and grandmothers alike, abduction of women by military and paramilitary forces and sexual abuse of women sometimes in the presence of male family members is used as a weapon of war. The presence of over 900,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces in the Valley of Kashmir has heightened the insecurity of the women and children.
During the years of suffering in Jammu & Kashmir, despite some intermittent and half-hearted efforts, the situation has worsened. And why has that been so? Because the response of the international community to the predicament of Kashmiri people in general and women in particular has been essentially weak and lacking in credibility. It is equally true that the United Nations mechanisms do not effectively address massive human rights violations. In the situations of armed conflicts and civil strife, it is the human rights of women that are violated and innocent people who are killed and brutalized.
Even the Indian Penal Code has adopted that the rape is a serious crime, but the world bodies including the United Nations have failed to persuade India to desist from using rape as a weapon of war, fear and terror in Kashmir.
Dr. Shagufta Ashraf, University of Kotli, Azad Kashmir wrote in Geneva Times on March 5, 2024, that “Women in Kashmir face the worst effects of militarization. They endure loss, become widows due to conflict and suffer from the harshness of rape and violence. The impact of militarization on Kashmiri women is profound, symbolizing an increased state of vulnerability and perpetual threat in which they exist. The aftermath of conflict leaves women as widows or half widows and the trauma of sexual violence further worsens an already dire situation.”
In 2013, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on violence against woman stated in her final country report on India that legislative provisions like “the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has mostly resulted in impunity for human rights violations [since] the law protects the armed forces from effective prosecution in non-military courts for human rights violations committed against civilian women among others, and it allows for the overriding of due process rights.”
Noting that impunity for armed forces was “eroding fundamental rights and freedoms […] including dignity and bodily integrity rights for women in Jammu and Kashmir”, the rapporteur called on the Indian government to repeal the Act.
Eleven years later, her recommendations are yet to be acted upon, with the result that not only armed forces but officials in any capacity feel at liberty to exploit women’s rights and freedoms, often in the form of sexual transgressions.
The report issued by United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights explained 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”
There is need to forcefully deal with the root cause of the conflict. As we know that the underlying cause of conflict between India and Pakistan is the denial of the right of self-determination which was promised by the United Nations to the people of Jammu & Kashmir. If the United Nations continues to apply its writ selectively, then the tide of world opinion may turn against it. If we continue to target small countries and overlooking the pernicious acts of the bigger countries, then the global family may lose its hope and the United Nations system may lose much more than that – its credibility.
The blatant violations of women’s rights continue to this day despite documentation and evidence provided by UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, United States Country Report on Human Rights, Amnesty Interventional, Fidh, Human Right Watch and others. It is quite natural that the people of Kashmir feel often assailed by despair because of the half-hearted response of the international community to our tragic situation. Unfortunately, the inaction, and the silence of the world powers, of course unintentionally, have given the sense of impunity to the occupation authority in Kashmir.
Lastly, we cannot discuss the empowerment of women in a society when they have been denied the right of sustenance and survival in the Valley. The people of Kashmir look up to the United Nations as an umbrella where some resolution of this situation is looked into, and a stable future is assured for the ones who have suffered the most, the women and children.