Let us unite our anger in favour of our prisoners
Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani
Does a newspaper article or a column make a difference? Yes it does. An article that made a difference in the lives of people around the world was written on Sunday 28 May 1961 in the Weekend Review section of The Observer in London and in Le Monde, Paris. It was titled 'The Forgotten Prisoners’ and was written by a civil rights lawyer Peter Benenson. Benenson had been angered after learning about two Portuguese students who had been arrested and imprisoned for seven years after drinking a toast to liberty in a Lisbon cafe during the Salazar dictatorship.
40-year old Eton-educated London lawyer wrote “Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government. There are several million such people in prison -- by no means all of them behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains -- and their numbers are growing. The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust all over the world could be united into common action, something effective could be done.”
Out of this article grew an international civil rights campaign presently known as Amnesty International to defend prisoners around the world. The article brought the reader’s attention to those "imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government" or, put another way, to violations, by governments, of articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The article described these violations occurring, on a global scale, in the context of restrictions to press freedom, to political oppositions, to timely public trial before impartial courts, and to asylum. It marked the launch of "Appeal for Amnesty, 1961", the aim of which was to mobilize public opinion, quickly and widely, in defence of these individuals, who Benenson named "Prisoners of Conscience".
It is exactly 48 years since 1961 that a letter has been published in local press in Srinagar (Weekly Chattan) on behalf of over 150 Kashmiri prisoners held in Tihar jail, Delhi. Some of these have been languishing in the jail for the last 12 – 13 years. The letter has a message drenched in a reach out cry of helplessness and makes serious allegations against the Kashmiri leadership for their neglect. It makes another allegation against lawyers who seek to exploit the situation for their own benefit.
The arrest of 2 Portuguese students who had been arrested and imprisoned for seven years after drinking a toast to liberty in a Lisbon cafe during the Salazar dictatorship angered civil rights lawyer Peter Benenson and he set out to make a difference in the lives of prisoners around the world. Would the SOS of over 150 Kashmiri prisoners languishing in Delhi Tihar jail for the last 12-13 years and without any end in sight, anger any one, in any discipline of civil society in Jammu and Kashmir begs examination.
Prison reform is a continuous process and so is the law on rights of prisoners continually being updated and made to stand the test of this century. Prisoners retain certain basic rights, which survive despite imprisonment. The rights of access to the courts and of respect for one’s bodily integrity - that is, not to be assaulted or violated - are fundamental rights. Prisoners lose only those civil rights that are taken away either expressly by an Act of Parliament or by necessary implication. For example, one right taken away by statute is that prisoners detained following conviction do not have a right to vote, although this is under consideration following criticism by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Delhi is not Europe but is part of an accountable international community. Srinagar is not London but Kashmir is full of people in various disciplines of life, who perfectly match up to the spirit of Peter Benenson. We live in 2009 and Peter Benenson was 40 in 1961. If Peter Benenson could unite the world in a ‘positive anger’ in 1961 to defend the prisoners, there is no legal, political or financial bar in our way to ‘unite in anger’ and start examining the life of Kashmiri prisoners not only in Tihar jail Delhi but in all the prisons in Kashmir and in various other parts of India.
The distress cry of these prisoners in one jail poses a moral conundrum? Our leaders have a duty to public and then to self determination. If we have lost over a hundred thousand souls, we have lost the numerical strength required for a count in self-determination. Who is responsible for killing the right of self determination in the bud? And who is liable to pay a reparation for failing to respect the right to life of a Kashmiri?
No one is ready to cascade from the artificially raised heights of their ‘proposed’ politics and address the question of the families left behind by those killed in a militant resistance or otherwise. What is the liability of India and Pakistan for their failure to protect life in Kashmir? Does our leadership in their travel to Delhi and Islamabad raise the twin questions in public interest? Are we pursuing the welfare of these families as responsible members of civil society living on either side of cease fire line and abroad?
The question of the neglect of Kashmiri prisoners or prisoners of any nationality in any part of the world does not sit well for the claim of civility of any civil society. The neglect of Kashmiri prisoners should also pose a moral conundrum for well meaning members of civil society in India as well. It should be a legitimate concern of all the three Kashmiri Governments at Srinagar, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and the Government of Pakistan.
It is one thing to act in the spirit of Peter Benenson and quite a contrast to seek to monopolize, politicize and commercialize the question of Kashmiri prisoners. We have failed to live up to a selfless professional and human rights standard in our defence of victims of sex scandal. In the same manner we have failed to cause any relief to victims of Kunan Poshpora rape victims. Sadly we sold without a sense of loss of dignity and remorse, the photograph of three women, victims of rape, holding their trousers in their hands. Never in the history of abuse of human rights since World War I has any community forced a victim of rape to pose for a camera with trousers raised high in her hands. Some members of Kashmiri nation will go down in history to have caused this indignity to their mothers, sisters and daughters.
Kashmiri writers and members of civil society have a role to play. They need to act beyond their current and continuous interest in a handful of leaders, a majority of whom is proposed for them by forces outside the geographical embrace of the State. It is time that we take stock of the overall situation and act as barometers for the suffering of our people. Kashmiri leaders of either kind, political and militant, have used politics and militancy to enhance their CV in India and Pakistan. The two countries have turned a heavenly abode for their health and nuptial interests.
On the one hand they seem to seek independence from India and Pakistan and at the same time do not hesitate to anchor their major interests on their soil. Therefore, we need to listen to the SOS of a Kashmiri prisoner and see to it that a common Kashmiri discharges his moral duty in defending them. Let us unite our anger in favour of our prisoners and against our leaders and others who present an unfortunate case of moral conundrum.
In the words of Peter Benenson “The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust all over the world could be united into common action, something effective could be done.” After reading this column please unite in common action, so that something effective could be done
Author is London based Secretary General of JKCHR – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. He can be contacted at dr-nazirgilani@jkchr.com
Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani
Does a newspaper article or a column make a difference? Yes it does. An article that made a difference in the lives of people around the world was written on Sunday 28 May 1961 in the Weekend Review section of The Observer in London and in Le Monde, Paris. It was titled 'The Forgotten Prisoners’ and was written by a civil rights lawyer Peter Benenson. Benenson had been angered after learning about two Portuguese students who had been arrested and imprisoned for seven years after drinking a toast to liberty in a Lisbon cafe during the Salazar dictatorship.
40-year old Eton-educated London lawyer wrote “Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government. There are several million such people in prison -- by no means all of them behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains -- and their numbers are growing. The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust all over the world could be united into common action, something effective could be done.”
Out of this article grew an international civil rights campaign presently known as Amnesty International to defend prisoners around the world. The article brought the reader’s attention to those "imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government" or, put another way, to violations, by governments, of articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The article described these violations occurring, on a global scale, in the context of restrictions to press freedom, to political oppositions, to timely public trial before impartial courts, and to asylum. It marked the launch of "Appeal for Amnesty, 1961", the aim of which was to mobilize public opinion, quickly and widely, in defence of these individuals, who Benenson named "Prisoners of Conscience".
It is exactly 48 years since 1961 that a letter has been published in local press in Srinagar (Weekly Chattan) on behalf of over 150 Kashmiri prisoners held in Tihar jail, Delhi. Some of these have been languishing in the jail for the last 12 – 13 years. The letter has a message drenched in a reach out cry of helplessness and makes serious allegations against the Kashmiri leadership for their neglect. It makes another allegation against lawyers who seek to exploit the situation for their own benefit.
The arrest of 2 Portuguese students who had been arrested and imprisoned for seven years after drinking a toast to liberty in a Lisbon cafe during the Salazar dictatorship angered civil rights lawyer Peter Benenson and he set out to make a difference in the lives of prisoners around the world. Would the SOS of over 150 Kashmiri prisoners languishing in Delhi Tihar jail for the last 12-13 years and without any end in sight, anger any one, in any discipline of civil society in Jammu and Kashmir begs examination.
Prison reform is a continuous process and so is the law on rights of prisoners continually being updated and made to stand the test of this century. Prisoners retain certain basic rights, which survive despite imprisonment. The rights of access to the courts and of respect for one’s bodily integrity - that is, not to be assaulted or violated - are fundamental rights. Prisoners lose only those civil rights that are taken away either expressly by an Act of Parliament or by necessary implication. For example, one right taken away by statute is that prisoners detained following conviction do not have a right to vote, although this is under consideration following criticism by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Delhi is not Europe but is part of an accountable international community. Srinagar is not London but Kashmir is full of people in various disciplines of life, who perfectly match up to the spirit of Peter Benenson. We live in 2009 and Peter Benenson was 40 in 1961. If Peter Benenson could unite the world in a ‘positive anger’ in 1961 to defend the prisoners, there is no legal, political or financial bar in our way to ‘unite in anger’ and start examining the life of Kashmiri prisoners not only in Tihar jail Delhi but in all the prisons in Kashmir and in various other parts of India.
The distress cry of these prisoners in one jail poses a moral conundrum? Our leaders have a duty to public and then to self determination. If we have lost over a hundred thousand souls, we have lost the numerical strength required for a count in self-determination. Who is responsible for killing the right of self determination in the bud? And who is liable to pay a reparation for failing to respect the right to life of a Kashmiri?
No one is ready to cascade from the artificially raised heights of their ‘proposed’ politics and address the question of the families left behind by those killed in a militant resistance or otherwise. What is the liability of India and Pakistan for their failure to protect life in Kashmir? Does our leadership in their travel to Delhi and Islamabad raise the twin questions in public interest? Are we pursuing the welfare of these families as responsible members of civil society living on either side of cease fire line and abroad?
The question of the neglect of Kashmiri prisoners or prisoners of any nationality in any part of the world does not sit well for the claim of civility of any civil society. The neglect of Kashmiri prisoners should also pose a moral conundrum for well meaning members of civil society in India as well. It should be a legitimate concern of all the three Kashmiri Governments at Srinagar, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and the Government of Pakistan.
It is one thing to act in the spirit of Peter Benenson and quite a contrast to seek to monopolize, politicize and commercialize the question of Kashmiri prisoners. We have failed to live up to a selfless professional and human rights standard in our defence of victims of sex scandal. In the same manner we have failed to cause any relief to victims of Kunan Poshpora rape victims. Sadly we sold without a sense of loss of dignity and remorse, the photograph of three women, victims of rape, holding their trousers in their hands. Never in the history of abuse of human rights since World War I has any community forced a victim of rape to pose for a camera with trousers raised high in her hands. Some members of Kashmiri nation will go down in history to have caused this indignity to their mothers, sisters and daughters.
Kashmiri writers and members of civil society have a role to play. They need to act beyond their current and continuous interest in a handful of leaders, a majority of whom is proposed for them by forces outside the geographical embrace of the State. It is time that we take stock of the overall situation and act as barometers for the suffering of our people. Kashmiri leaders of either kind, political and militant, have used politics and militancy to enhance their CV in India and Pakistan. The two countries have turned a heavenly abode for their health and nuptial interests.
On the one hand they seem to seek independence from India and Pakistan and at the same time do not hesitate to anchor their major interests on their soil. Therefore, we need to listen to the SOS of a Kashmiri prisoner and see to it that a common Kashmiri discharges his moral duty in defending them. Let us unite our anger in favour of our prisoners and against our leaders and others who present an unfortunate case of moral conundrum.
In the words of Peter Benenson “The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust all over the world could be united into common action, something effective could be done.” After reading this column please unite in common action, so that something effective could be done
Author is London based Secretary General of JKCHR – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. He can be contacted at dr-nazirgilani@jkchr.com
No comments:
Post a Comment