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Prix International des droits de l'homme Ludovic-Trarieux
2006
Ludovic-Trarieux International Human
Rights Prize 2006
Premio Internacional de Derechos
Humanos Ludovic Trarieux
2006
Internationalen Ludovic-Trarieux-Menschenrechtspreis 2006
Prêmio Internacional
de Direitos Humanos Ludovic
Trarieux 2006
Premio Internazionale
per i Diritti Umani Ludovic
Trarieux 2006
Ludovic Trarieux
Internationale Mensenrechtenprijs 2006
“The award given by lawyers to a lawyer ”
Parvez IMROZ
Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize
2006
The European lawyers
members of the Jury of the "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE » meeting in Brussels Court’s
House, on Friday 2 June 2006 awarded
the eleventh « Ludovic-Trarieux
» Prize, created in 1984
(first prize winner Nelson Mandela then in jail) and awarded every year
to a lawyer, regardless of nationality or Bar, who, by his work, will
have illustrated his activity or his suffering, the defence of human rights, of defence rights, the supremacy of law, the struggle against racism and intolerance in any form and given jointly by the HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTES OF THE BAR Of
BORDEAUX, BRUSSELS, PARIS and the EUROPEAN BAR HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE ( IDHAE),
axarded the Prize 2006 to Parvez Imroz, a human rights lawyer and a civil rights activist in Srinagar, the
capital of Jammu and Kashmir, who,
since the end of the eighties, has initiated and led campaigns for human rights in a context of grave
violations, including killings,
tortures and rapes, or forced
"disappearances" with
impunity
Parvez
Imroz is founder and President of the J&K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS)
that works to build local alliances between
Kashmiri civil society groups.
The following was
the list of the Jury for 2006 : : Bâtonnier Bertrand
Favreau, Président, Bâtonnier John Bigwood
(Bruxelles), Bâtonnier Henri Ader (Paris), President Woijciech Hermelinski ( National Polish Bar Council Warsaw),
Bâtonnier Manuel Ducasse (Bordeaux), President Mario
Lana (Roma), President Lucy Winskell
(Law Society of England and Wales - London), Präsident Bernd Haüsler (Rechtsanwaltskammer Berlin), Bâtonnier Robert De Baerdemaeker (Brussels), Bâtonnier Georges-Albert Dal
(Brussels), Christophe. Pettiti IDHBP (Paris), Julia
Bateman (London), Brigitte Azema Peyret,
(Bordeaux), Hélêne Szuberla,
(Bordeaux), Nicole Dehry, IDHBP (Paris), Isabelle
Huet, IDHBP (Paris), Marie-France Guet, IDHBP (Paris), Reginald de Beco (Brussels), Raymond Blet, (Bordeaux), Philippe Froin, (Bordeaux), Frédéric Krenc
(Brussels, Thierry Bontinck (Brussels).
BREAKING NEW
Denial of a passport for Parvez Imroz to come and receive
in France the Prize 2006.
To Mr. Leandro Despouy , Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on
the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the United Nations - GENEVA
We,
Human Rights Institutes of the BAR OF
BORDEAUX, of the BAR OF
BRUSSELS and of the BAR OF PARIS and the EUROPEAN BAR HUMAN RIGHTS
INSTITUTE (IDHAE) , do protest against the fact that a great Democracy as
India prevents Mr Parvez Imroz, lawyer in Srinagar,
to come in France and receive the prestigious human rights Prize for a lawyer
"Ludovic Trarieux" on October 13th.
We think that the denial of a passport would be an unfair attack against human
rights.
We do hope that this refusal could be dropped.
On
Friday June 2nd 2006 the "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN
RIGHTS PRIZE » was awarded by the Jury to Mr. Parvez Imroz,
a lawyer in Srinagar who heads the J&K coalition of Civil Society, the eleventh « Ludovic-Trarieux » Prize 2006.
The
Prize created in 1984 is awarded every year to a lawyer, regardless of
nationality or Bar, who, by his work, will have illustrated his activity or his
suffering, the defence of human rights, of defence rights, the supremacy of
law, the struggle against racism and intolerance in any form, jointly by the THE BAR OF BORDEAUX, OF BRUSSELS and of PARIS and
the EUROPEAN BAR HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE ( IDHAE) , after consulting
humanitarian associations and NGO.
The
first winner of this Prize in 1985 was Nelson Mandela, then in jail. He was
prevented to come in France to receive the Prize by the apartheid
government of South Africa in 1985.
According
to the rules of the award, the prize winner must attend the award ceremony, that will take
place
in Bordeaux,
on Friday October 13th 2006 at 17 .30 p.m.
in the National School of the Magistracy.
At
this moment, we respectuously
ask to Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the Independence
of Judges and Lawyers to get the authorization from
Indian authorities that Mr Imroz
could received from the Indian authorities a passport to come in
France and receive the Prize in next October.
Background : Previously, on May 17 2006: Amnesty
International has approached the special representative of the UN secretary
general on the denial of passport to the human rights activist Parvez Imroz, who heads the J&K coalition of Civil
Society.
In a statement Imroz, who is also the patron of the association of
parents of disappeared persons, said he had applied for the renewal of passport
in 2004 to the passport authorities in the state. Since thereafter the
authorities have neither formally denied him the passport nor given reasons for
its non- issuance.
The human rights activist's no objection
certificate (NOC) is lying with the CID/ CIK since March 14, 2005 with the
result he was unable to attend the important international human rights
conferences
Imroz believes that being human rights activist the state is unlikely to
issue him the passport which contravenes the Indian constitution and
international treaties like ICCPR (section 12 guarantees Right to Travel
outside the country) to which government of India is signatory. Denial of
travel documents deprive him the right to have unhindered access with the
international NGOs and human rights organizations, which is also violation of
the UN declaration on human rights defenders.
Several previous Amnesty documents have
reported threats and other difficulties experienced by Imroz because of his human rights. In 2002 Amnesty
issued a report persecuted for challenging injustice: human rights defenders in
India documenting their concerns about the treatment of human rights activists.
The organization has asked the government of India on many occasions to support
the work of human rights defenders and fulfill
their obligations under international law, such as the right to travel outside
the country and the principals enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights
Defenders so that they can carry out their work without any hindrance.
Biography : Parvez Imroz is a human rights lawyer and
a civil rights activist in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir. He
graduated in Science from Srinagar in the year 1972 and then got his LLB degree
at the Law College Aligarh Muslim University in 1975. Imroz
joined the J&K High Court as a lawyer in 1978. Since the end of the eighties, he has
initiated and led campaigns for human rights in a context of grave violations,
including killings, tortures and rapes, or forced "disappearances"
with impunity. He is founder and President of the J&K Coalition of Civil
Society (JKCCS) that works
to build local alliances between Kashmiri civil society groups.
In response to the large
volume of parents at the Jammu and Kashmir High court who were filing or
pursuing habeas corpus petitions, Imroz founded in
1994 the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which brings
together hundreds of Kashmiri families whose members have been the victims of
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (EID). The APDP is a collective
campaigning organization that seeks truth and justice on this human rights
issue in Kashmir. The APDP is not a human rights group but an association of
those suffering by the State’s tactics and they are campaigning for knowing the
whereabouts of their missing relatives. Any person related to a victim of a disappearance could
be a member of the association. The association has no political affiliations
or political positions; it is an independent group seeking justice and
information from the state.
Parvez Imroz has lost four
colleagues in seven years at the hands of the security forces. Imroz's senior partner, H N Wanchoo,
was assassinated in the early 1990s, and on April, 12, 1995, Parvez Imroz was shot when he was
driving home after visiting a friend some eight kilometres from Srinagar. Two
men armed with automatic weapons signalled him to stop. Imroz
sped up, and as he passed beyond them he was hit in the upper left back. He
lost control of the car and stopped in front of a mosque. Someone came out of
the mosque and drove Imroz to the SMHS hospital.
Fragments of AK-56 bullets were found in Imroz's
upper back, and his left lung was damaged. After six days, Imroz
was transferred to a hospital in Delhi, where he remained for fifteen days.
When he returned to Srinagar, several militants of Hezb-ul
Mujahedin apologized for shooting him, claiming that
it was a case of mistaken identity. He was tempted to quit.
One year later, on March 8,
1996, Imroz had tea with another High Court lawyer
specialising in human rights, Jalil Andrabi. Thirty minutes later, Andrabi
and his wife were stopped by a unit of the 35 Rashtriya
Rifles (35RR), an Indian paramilitary force. In 2004, a gunman came to the home of senior lawyer
Peer Husssam-ud-Din Banday to discuss
a case, and killed him.
On July 18, 2001, Imroz realized his dream, in Srinagar,
he laid the foundation stone of a monument built by the APDP, in memory of
Kashmiri men who have gone missing in the past 12 years of violence. In less
than eight-hours, Indian police razed the foundation.
Parvez Imroz did not resign and founded the Public
Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) that works extensively on the documentation
of human rights violations and the dissemination of the information through its
monthly dossier “The Informative Missive”. The PCHR also provides free legal
assistance to the victims of human rights violations. The PCHR has published a
comprehensive report on Human Rights situation in Kashmir, which includes the
time period of last 16 years. Besides documentation, the commission is
providing free legal assistance to the victims of human rights violations.
Thousands of victims have been benefited from the PCHR’s
free legal assistance.
Recently, in April 2003, Imroz organized a worldwide hunger strike, coordinated in
different cities across the world, pressing for an end to disappearances,
prosecution of perpetrators, and appointment of a commission to probe into all
enforced disappearances. During the hunger strike the APDP received the letters
of solidarity from the civil society groups from India and abroad.
In March 2004, the
Association of Disappeared Persons organised a protest in Srinagar. Violent
protest demonstrations followed alleged police high- handedness and over a
dozen people, mostly women, were injured. Witnesses said that police targeted
women in a procession by the APDP heading towards the office of the
United Nations who were demanding for the fate of their relatives who had gone
missing in police custody during the last 13 years. Soon after the procession
started from the APDP office, police used force to disperse it. Over a dozen
women and the APDP patron, Parvez Imroz,
were injured. Later police arrested 10 women and Parvez
Imroz and they remained in custody for 7 hours.
Once more, on 21 April
2005, the APDP organised, in Srinagar a new laying of foundation stone for a monument
to disappeared persons.
On April 30, 2005 at 5.30 am, an unidentified
gunman came to Imroz’s
house in the Kralpora area, stating
that he wanted
to discuss a case with him. Reportedly, the door was not opened
for the man. Fifteen minutes later,
the man allegedly banged on
the door and left. The information
received indicates that, at this
time in the morning, there
are restrictions on civilian movement
in the Kashmir valley. It was alleged that
the man who came to Imroz’s
house that morning was a member of the army. On 11 May 2005, the Special Representative on the Independence of Judges and
Lawyers of the United Nations sent an urgent appeal concerning Parvez Imroz. No response has
been received from the Government of India.
More on : Parvez IMROZ
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