Khurram Parvez, wrongfully incarcerated, completes two years in prison in India

Criminalization of human rights in Kashmir

Written byAther Zia

Posted 19 December 2023 

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Screenshot from YouTube video: ‘Is creating a culture of accountability in Kashmir, a problem? Khurram Parvez asks the Govt.’ Interview on Video Volunteers channel. Fair use.

On November 21, Khurram Parvez, the globally renowned Kashmiri human rights defender, completed two years in India’s maximum-security District Jail of Rohini. Parvez is symbolic of what has been called a large-scale crackdown on democratic dissent and human rights in the Indian-administered Kashmir. The pattern of Indian crackdown in Kashmir has grown exponentially under the rule of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party that has been the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Hindu rightwing outfit since 2014.

In 2019, the  Indian government unilaterally and militarily removed Kashmir’s autonomy. The policies of the Indian government have proceeded at an extraordinary speed, choking and diminishing any remnants of free space and expression. It has passed an array of laws to speed up its settler-colonial policies.

Read our special coverage: Inside Kashmir's crisis

Since 1991, Kashmir has been under the Armed Forces Special Act (AFSPA) imposed to suppress the insurrection against the Indian military occupation. Even though official numbers vary, past reports have estimated around 700,000 Indian troops occupy the region. Kashmir is one of the world's densest militarized regions and is often called an open-air prison. AFSPA requires prior “sanctions” from the government to prosecute any member of the Indian forces. The “sanctions” have been used as an immunity mechanism for Indian forces to shield them from prosecution for all criminal offences. Not a single member of the Indian forces deployed in Kashmir over the past three decades has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. Thus, Indian forces have acted with impunity and complete disregard for the civil and human rights of Kashmiris.

According to human rights groups, gross human rights violations have resulted in 70,000-plus killings of Kashmiris, both combatants and civilians, and 8,000–10,000 estimated enforced disappearances; rape as a weapon of war, political incarcerations, and injuries like the world’s first mass blindings.

Read our special coverage: The Kashmiri People Versus the Indian State

Khurram Parvez has headed the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) for the past two decades. JKCCS has extensively documented human rights violations in the region and mentored and trained countless young activists and rights defenders. It is a non-funded and voluntary network of individuals and groups that organized in 2000 to create a culture of independent rights-based dialogue and documentation of human rights violations. Parvez is the lead coordinator of one of the two Association of Parents of the Disappeared Persons (APDP) groups, which are seeking justice for Kashmiris forcibly disappeared by the Indian forces. Both APDPs were awarded the Rafto Prize for human rights in 2017. In 2004, while monitoring elections, Parvez lost his left leg in a land-mine blast while two of his colleagues were killed.

Even while incarcerated, Parvez was re-elected as the president of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), which he has led since 2014. In April, Khurram was unanimously elected deputy secretary general of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). In her remarks, the president of FIDH, Alice Mogwe, expressed support and admiration for Parvez and his untiring passion for human rights work. In addition to past international awards, this year, Parvez received the Martin Enals Human Rights Defender Award for his human rights work in Kashmir. Prominent human rights watchdogs and advocates, including UN Rapporteurs, global peace activists, and writers the world over, have continued to highlight Khurram’s unflagging service to human rights defence. They strongly condemn his ongoing arbitrary detention as a reprisal for his activism.

The Indian state has, for the last 75 years, steadily criminalized all democratic dissent in Kashmir, and this has now been institutionalized. Anyone challenging the state’s narrative is promptly booked under sedition, terrorism, and other repressive “legal” charges with the singular aim of silencing critical voices. Parvez, too, has been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), known as India’s most abused counterterrorism law. UAPA is a draconian piece of legislation that is notorious for arbitrarily labelling an individual a “terrorist” and implying guilt until proven innocent, and bail is extremely hard to get. International rights groups concur that India is misusing its legal mechanisms, such as the UAPA, to target human rights defenders in Kashmir and across India.

As reported, in Kashmir, even journalists and scribes are facing persecution. In 2020, a new media policy was imposed. Strict censorship has been a historical reality in Kashmir, but now it is fully institutionalized. Journalists, human rights defenders, writers, and opinion leaders are unable to report freely the ground realities. Even social media users are under the scanner. Notably, journalists Asif Sultan and Sajad Gul were booked under arbitrary allegations. The Commission for Protection of Journalism says that the media in Kashmir is at a breaking point. Kashmiri journalists face the impounding of passports, loss of writing and archives, bans, and the blocking of their websites. In October, the government of India reignited a 10-year-old case of sedition against Arundhati Roy, the 1997 Booker Prize winner and an activist, and a Kashmiri former professor, Sheikh Showkat Hussain. Roy has been one of the strongest voices in India to speak against Indian policies in Kashmir.

The research and documentation on human rights violations by the Indian armed forces by the JKCCS is impeccably researched, painstakingly collected, and independently verified by well-known global human rights watchdogs, like Amnesty International, which validates the work of JKCCS. Even Amnesty’s office in India had to shut down after it was raided and its financial assets frozen in 2020. Amnesty called it a “witch-hunt” and part of a large-scale crackdown against human rights organizations, particularly in Kashmir. Human rights work in Kashmir is effectively banned, as is any form of protest.

On November 9, the Indian armed forces tribunal suspended the life sentence of an Indian army captain. In 2020, the officer was found guilty of killing three Kashmiri youths in a staged encounter after labelling them “terrorists.” Staged encounters have been used as an extra-judicial method of counterinsurgency by the Indian army, accruing human rights violations and abuses against Kashmiris.

Since human rights and civil society activism are under severe repression, no public protest was possible even though the families were outraged. This is where human rights defenders and journalists played a pivotal democratic function in Kashmir. Now, any form of human rights defence or investigative journalism that challenges the Indian narrative is seen as a threat and labelled “anti-India”. Such is the level of silencing in Kashmir that in the wake of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, even pro-Palestinian protest is banned by India. The police have ordered mosques not to mention the genocide and if people want to pray for Palestine, they can do so only in Arabic and not Kashmiri.

Marking the second anniversary of Parvez's incarceration, global human rights organizations have once again called for his immediate and unconditional release and that of his former colleague at JKCCS and journalist Irfan Mehraj. Alice Mogwe, president of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), stated:

The UN ruling on Khurram Parvez’s case authoritatively confirms that his detention is an act of reprisal for his human rights work, and an attempt to silence him and Kashmiri civil society as a whole. The Indian authorities must implement the UN’s recommendations and immediately release Khurram.”

What we need the most is strong political commitment and global solidarity to urge the Indian government to Free Khurram Parvez and free journalists Irfan Meraj and Asif Sultan. Free all Kashmiri political prisoners!

On December 11, 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court quashed the detention order of journalist Asif Sultan under the Public Safety Act (PSA). It is still unclear when he will be released. Sultan was granted bail in April 2022 but ended up being booked under fresh charges, and his detention continued.

The Bridge features personal essays, commentary, and creative non-fiction that illuminate differences in perception between local and international coverage of news events, from the unique perspective of members of the Global Voices community. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the opinion of the community as a whole. All Posts

REALITY TV CCP STYLE

 

REALITY TV CCP STYLE

Hong Kong embraces televised confessions of political prisoners

The program is jointly produced by HK police and TVB

Written byOiwan Lam

Posted 20 December 2023 

Screenshot from “National Security Law — the Cornerstone of Prosperity and Stability” via Hong Kong Police Force's X account. Fair use.

The recent appearance of two political prisoners in a television program has led many to believe that the mainland Chinese practice of “televised confessions” has found its way to Hong Kong. 

The Television program “National Security Law — the Cornerstone of Prosperity and Stability” (有法安國 NSL — the Cornerstone) is jointly produced by the Hong Kong Police Force and TVB, Hong Kong’s biggest free-to-air television station.

With 12 mini-episodes, the TV program depicts the massive protests in 2019,  as a riot aided and instigated by some operators to justify Beijing’s enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. 

The prolonged protests in 2019 were triggered by an extradition bill that authorizes Hong Kong to extradite crime suspects to mainland China for trial. Peaceful rallies escalated into destructive protests amid the police's repressions and pro-Beijing counter-protests. 

The two political prisoners who appeared on the television shows are Tsang Chi-kin, 22, and Tong Ying-kit, 26. 

Tsang was shot by the police during the 2019 protests and hid out for two years after jumping his bail. He was arrested after a failed attempt to flee to Taiwan and sentenced to 47 months in prison in September 2023 over rioting and police assault during a protest on October 1, 2019. 

The Hong Kong Police Force has published Tsang’s interview on X (formerly Twitter): 

In the show, Tsang said he was affected by the intense atmosphere. The narration then cut in and said, “he was later provided with gear” and that after he was arrested, “he met a middleman who persuaded him to jump bail.” Tsang also talked about his miserable life during the two-year hideout.

Tong is the first person prosecuted under the NSL. He was arrested on July 1, 2020, after he drove a motorcycle with a flag reading “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” into three police officers during an authorized demonstration against the enactment of NSL. He was given a nine-year jail sentence for incitement to secession and committing acts of terror. 

During the interview, Tong also said he was affected by the atmosphere and believed that “violence” was the only way to solve the problem. He also expressed remorse that his act had punished people around him.

The narrator explained that Tong had been provided with the opportunity to receive full-time education at Ethics College, a newly established prisoner correctional institute and that he had taken part in a Chinese flag-raising ritual of its opening ceremony. 

Both overseas Hong Kong activists and human rights organizations described the shows as mainland Chinese-style televised confessions:

China has systematically televised confessions made by arrested or convicted human rights activists either through force or by coercion to discredit political dissidents. Such practice attracted more international attention in 2016 after Swedish activist Peter Dahlin exposed in detail how he was detained and forced to confess that he had “harmed the Chinese government” and “hurt Chinese people’s feelings” on a China state-owned television show. 

Dahin’s group, Safeguard Defenders, further revealed in a report in 2018 that most of the televised confessions in China were “extracted by police through torture, threats to loved ones and promises of lenient treatment.”

While this is the first time a local television station has taken part in the production of “televised confessions”, many in Hong Kong remember well how a local bookseller, Lam Wing Kee, was forced to confess back in February 2016. The bookseller later said that he was coerced to read the script for the show. 

However, judging from the two episodes, the local production is distinctive from the mainland Chinese televised production. Hong Kong current affairs commentator Fung Hei-kin examined the difference:

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

Mainland China’s “televised confessions” are usually broadcast before a conviction is handed down by the court, to tell the audience: that the arrest is reasonable and justified, and that he has confessed to the crime. How would the Chinese Communist Party wrong a good person?

As for those who “confessed” in the “NSL – the Cornerstone”, they have already gone through the “sunshine” judicial process — as Hong Kong has the “Rule of Law” — the order is different from the Mainland Chinese production but the objective is the same. It is the same kind of propaganda: the court’s ruling is justified and reasonable, and see, he himself has confessed it outright. How would the National Security Judge wrong a good person?

Safeguard Defenders’ campaign director Laura Harth reminded people that the practice of televised confessions is also a means to instil fear and disparity into the community:

When asked in a public occasion by the press if Hong Kong has imported the Mainland-style “televised confession”, the Secretary of Security Chris Tang answered:

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

It is very noble for those who have committed crimes in the past to repent and share their feelings, and to remind young people not to break the law inadvertently. If anyone describes their good intentions and noble sharing as something bad, I think it is an insult to their sincere repentance.

This post is part of Advox, a Global Voices project dedicated to protecting freedom of expression online. All Posts

With First Lady’s profile hacked, Brazilians pointed to X delay on acting

Janja da Silva has 1.2 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter

Written byGlobal Voices Brazil

Posted 20 December 2023 

Brazil's First Lady Rosângela ‘Janja’ da Silva | Image: Claudio Kbene/Brazil's Presidency/Used under license

A hacker attack took over Brazil's First Lady Rosângela ‘Janja’ da Silva profile on X (formerly known as Twitter) this December 11. For over an hour, the individual or people behind it posted slanderous messages against Janja herself, President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, and Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is in charge of investigations on bolsonaristas groups.

Janja has often used her profile, with over 1.2 million followers and a blue check mark, to publish about government actions and her daily life with the president. The following morning after the hacking, the account was still up, but without any of the 3,446 posts being visible.

Three days later, a 17-year-old confessed to the Federal Police to be responsible for hacking the First Lady's X, LinkedIn, and email accounts, as reported by O Globo newspaper. He claimed to have found the information available in an online data leak.

According to news outlet G1, the blocking of the account followed a request made by the Brazilian Federal Police, which leads the investigation of the case, and will be deactivated as soon as they get its data preserved. The Attorney General's Office also demanded that X freeze the account and preserve all access data, direct messages, and IP addresses until the end of the investigation.

Recently, Meta — another social media giant — replied to the Brazilian Supreme Court that it could no longer provide a video posted by former president Jair Bolsonaro on Facebook, that was to be used in the investigations of the attacks on the Three Powers headquarters in Brasília last January. The video was recovered by the Federal Prosecution Office later.

Image: Screenshot from X

In an official statement, Brazil's Presidential Office repudiated the attack and said the Federal Police and X were contacted to take measures. ”We will not tolerate crimes, misogynistic speeches, hate, and intolerance on social media,” said the statement regarding the tone of the content shared by those responsible for the hacking.

Besides attacks on Lula and Supreme Court Justice Moraes, many messages had sexist and misogynistic words directed at Janja herself, as pointed out by X user @KriskaCarvalho:

The brat that hacked into Janja's account was an incel. Even rape he mentioned. It wasn't only a cyber crime, it was also violence against women. Most of the posts were misogynistic aggressions. No woman escapes the fascism and the hate that took over social media. Enough…

Another user, @Rafael_Parente, also commented on the sexist tone:

Janja's Twitter was hacked and from every 10 tweets, 9 were sexual offenses. It's impressive how one of the main far right features is hating on women.

Many users, especially journalists, also noted, however, the delay for X to adopt measures and take down the hacking while it was still going on:

For the past 40 minutes a hacker has been writing all sort of improper content on the account of the First Lady of Brazil and the profile is still up. Mr. @elonmusk fired everyone working on Twitter Brazil. What to expect from a company that replies to press requests via e-mail with a poop emoji?

I've contacted all executives that used to work for Twitter. No one is working with them anymore. X does not have a team in Brazil. The First Lady's profile will remain under the rules of the hacker-incel.

On December 19, Janja appeared in Lula's weekly broadcast ”Talk with the President,” criticized Elon Musk, saying he gained money while her account was under attack and that she is going to sue X.

”We live in a regulated society. Why would the internet be out of it?”, she questioned. The First Lady and the President also discussed regulation on social media following the case.

A week before, Janja posted on Instagram — where she has 2.3 million followers — a comment about the hacker attack and calling the posts published ”sexist and criminal, typical of those who despise women, coexist in a society, democracy, and the law.” On December 17, she went back to posting on X:

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

I thought a lot about coming back or not to these social media, not only because of the aggressions that took place in my profile, but mainly for the delay of those managing X to act, freezing my profile so the attacks would stop being posted and could be silenced. My social media team was quick, but the nightmare extended for over an hour and a half until the blocking. The disorder and bureaucracy continued in order to have the account reinstated and the platform report finally handed to the Federal Police investigation, which happened only four days after the crimes.

A sociologist, she is often criticized in Brazil for being outspoken about certain issues and for taking part in presidential official agendas.

She had been a Workers’ Party (PT) militant before beginning a relationship with Lula months before he was sent to prison in April 2018 under Operation Car Wash investigations.

This December 14, after the Federal Police carried search and seizure acts in some addresses of suspects, President Lula spoke about the story at a public event:

Do you know the hacker that invaded Janja's profile? A 17 year-old youngster spreading hate online. When will we react and form this youth so they won't reproduce violence against girls and women? We need to politicize the youth. We have to make this commitment stronger.

Year in review: In 2024, the climate crisis was top of mind for the Caribbean

 

Year in review: In 2024, the climate crisis was top of mind for the Caribbean

Small Island Developing States bear the brunt of the worst effects of climate change

Written byJanine Mendes-Franco

Posted 23 December 2023 

Feature image via Canva Pro.

Like everywhere else in the world, in 2024 the Caribbean experienced its fair share of triumphs and challenges, but as a region of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the ill effects of climate change are right at its doorstep.

Of the many stories the Global Voices Caribbean team covered this year, the lion's share of them have been linked in some way to this looming threat and the importance of climate justice to the region's survival. This is not to say that there were no concerns about crime and violence, political tension, or sadness over Caribbean icons who passed away over the last 12 months, just that the climate crisis was the issue that appeared most pressing to social media users, as well as journalists across the region.

Climate change challenges

Because Caribbean island nations typically have smaller populations and operate on a much lower scale when it comes to industrialisation, the region produces fewer carbon emissions than many Global North countries. Yet, they bear the brunt of the worst effects of climate change because of their geographical vulnerabilities.

The climate crisis has, therefore, become an existential threat to SIDS, manifesting in severe and multifaceted impacts, from rising sea levels that erode shorelines, threaten coastal communities, and exacerbate the risk of saltwater intrusion into freshwater sources, to uncomfortably hot temperatures and the disruption of ecosystems.

The growing frequency and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes have also placed Caribbean countries in the crosshairs of the climate crisis, causing widespread damage to infrastructure, disrupting livelihoods, and amplifying the challenges of recovery.

Six years after Dominica suffered great devastation post-Hurricane Maria, for instance, the country is still attempting to build climate-resilient homes for its citizens, making its leaders even more resolute about advocating for proper Loss and Damage mechanisms to be put in place at the recently concluded COP28 conference.

Dominica has also been proactive in other areas, becoming the first country in the world to designate 800 square kilometres (300 square miles) of its waters as a sanctuary for sperm whales, an endangered species that can actually help fight climate change.

However, there were many instances this year in which climate progress felt like one step forward, two steps back. While environmentalist Allison Ifield, for instance, continued her fight to protect Belize's mangroves, Jamaicans found themselves having to fight for access to their own beaches. Plastic pollution on beaches was also reaching concerning levels, and there was much outcry about unsustainable development practices and the pollution of water sources on the island.

Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s Ramsar site continued to be threatened by a sandbar breach, which, if not rectified, can compromise the well-being of the lagoon’s ecosystems, as well as people's livelihoods. The breach occurred in 2017 after Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm, hit the island.

How the climate crisis affects communities

This year, Global Voices published several stories that gave readers deeper insight into the many ways in which the heating of the planet has been having an impact on diverse communities, including women and their newborns, menstruating women, and other vulnerable groups like the visually impaired and Indigenous people, many of whom have been positioning themselves on the frontline of the battle for climate justice.

Many of those affected have been struggling with everything from stress and mental health challenges to finding ways to cope with events like flooding and bushfires.

Effects over land and sea

Another serious effect that the climate crisis has been having on island nations is the disruption to agriculture due to changing precipitation patterns and more frequent droughts. In many small island economies, small-scale farming is a vital source of income and sustenance. As a result, nations like Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been grappling with food production and finding ways to combat food insecurity. In Trinidad and Tobago, vetiver is being promoted as a reliable and eco-friendly solution to mitigate the effects of flooding, landslides, slope destabilisation and erosion.

Additionally, the warming of oceans has been compromising the vibrant marine ecosystems that form the backbone of many Caribbean economies, forcing island nations to pivot. Trinidad and Tobago, for example, has begun creating partnerships in order to help protect its coral reefs. Suriname, whose fisheries have been negatively impacted by climate change, is turning towards options like aquaculture, while Belize is very clear about the benefits of a blue economy, having been the first country in Central America — back in 1982 — to designate a Marine Protected Area (MPA) with the Half Moon Caye Natural Monument.

Jamaica was also centre stage this year as far as threats to the world's oceans were concerned since the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN agency with a mandate to organise and control the international seabed's mineral resources “for the benefit of humankind as a whole,” is headquartered in Kingston, where deliberations on deep-sea mining reached a critical stage.

At the various meetings that took place, young activists and artists were very involved, speaking out about the importance of defending the deep.

The tentative hope of COP28

Even before the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, got underway in the UAE, Caribbean leaders were being urged not to squander the opportunity to make the climate conference “transformative,” with more people becoming aware of the great potential of fossil fuel alternatives.

Even as some feared inaction at COP28 would deliver the death knell for vulnerable regions like the Caribbean, Small Islands Developing States did their part in advocating for both renewable energy initiatives and the need for ramped-up decarbonisation efforts.

In the end, the big wins were the long-awaited launch of the Loss and Damage Fund and the eventual recognition of the need to transition away from fossil fuels. However, with no firm obligation or timeframe of deliverables in which to achieve this, Caribbean nations are understandably cautious about their optimism. After all, mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions to ensure not just sustainability but survival must be undertaken collectively in order to have any chance of achieving the Paris Agreement's objective to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.