Days after the statement of Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (SREJE) Christof Heyns has come out with a recommendation for the Government of India to rectify the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that has been adversely affecting women’s lives in areas noted as “disturbed”.
“India should repeal, or at least radically amend, AFSPA and the Jammu and Kashmir AFSPA, with the aim of ensuring that the legislation regarding the use of force by the armed forces provides for the respect of the principles of proportionality and necessity in all instances, as stipulated under international human rights law. It should also remove all legal barriers for the criminal prosecution of members of the armed forces.”
The Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) welcomed the report.
The practices affecting women’s right to life, indicating dowry-related deaths as a country wide issue with staggering numbers of occurrence has been pointed out as an area of concern.
The Special Rapporteur flagged his concern on deaths caused by “fake encounters” with the police, the central armed police forces and the armed forces being accused of several incidences of this still existing practice.
