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IDHAE INFORMATION
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In spite of several requests since July 2006,
Indian authorities refuse to give a passport to M. Parvez Imroz, human rights
Lawyer in Srinagar( Kashmir) who heads the J&K coalition of Civil
Society, to go and receive in France the eleventh « Ludovic-Trarieux »
Prize 2006. PARVEZ
IMROZ, a lawyer of Kashmir and one of the winner of Human Rights has been
awarded " Prix International des droits de l'homme Ludovic-Trarieux
2006" by the IDHBB, France. He was selected for this prestigious award on
Friday June 2nd 2006. To
receive this Human Rights International Award, the pre-condition is that the
prize winner must attend the award ceremony to be held at in Bordeaux in the
National School of the Magistracy on Friday October 13th 2006 at 17.30 p.m. Parvez
Imroz passport is lying with the Government of India for its renewal since
2004. Thereafter passport authorities have neither formally denied him the
passport nor given reasons for its non - issuance. Citizen of India raising
doubt on this non - renewal of passport. IDHAE
urging, the high authorities in the Government of India, should immediately
interfer in this matter and should take steps to renew the passport of Parvez
Imroz. This will be one of the way to prove the Government of India's credibility
on Kashmir issue to its citizens. Failing by the government, will raise doubt
on the citizens right given by the Indian constitution. To Mr. Leandro Despouy , Special Rapporteur of the Commission on
Human Rights on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the United Nations
- GENEVA Denial of a passport for Parvez Imroz, lawyer in Srinagar
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 in France 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 INFORMATION 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
HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTES OF THE BAR OF BORDEAUX, OF BRUSSELS and of PARIS and the
EUROPEAN BAR HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE ( IDHAE), after consulting humanitarian
associations and NGOs. 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 aparthied government
of South Africa in 1985. According
to the rules of the award, the prize winner
must attend the award ceremony,
with takes plane in Bordeaux in the National School of the Magistra on Friday
October 13th 2006 at 17 .30 p.m. The above Institutes and lawyers of the Bar 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. 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. 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. On April 30, 2005 Imroz came out with a statement that he is receiving death threats from an unidentified man he called a government-sponsored gunman who came to his house at Kralpora area and that the Indian army and the Jammu and Kashmir government are conspiring to kill him. RECOMMENDED ACTION : Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as
possible, in English or your own language : ·
calling on the Indian authorities to give his passport
to Parvez Imroz so that he can attend the Prize winning Ceremony of Octobre
13th :; ·
urging the Indian authorities to comply with artcle 16
of Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers of the United Nations adopted by
the Eighth United Nations Congress in Havana, on 27 August to 7 September
1990 : " Governments shall ensure
that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions
without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; (b) are
able to travel and to consult with their clients freely both within their own
country and abroad; and (c) shall not suffer, or be threatened with,
prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action
taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and
ethics." APPEALS TO :
7, Race Course Road, New Delhi Telephone : 23018939, 23011156,
23018907, 23019334, 23015470 Salutation : Dear Chief Minister COPIES TO : Minister of State for External
Affairs : His Excellency B. Ahamed Fax: 00 91 11 2 309 4221 Minister of Home Affairs : Shri
Shivraj Vishwanath Patil Minister of Home Affairs Ministry of Home Affairs
104 – 107 North Block New Delhi 110 001 Inde Fax : + 91 11 2309 2979 Click for downloading
letters : PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY
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