The Supreme Court has ordered the establishment of a Truth-and-Reconciliation Commission to address human rights violations both by state and non-state actors in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1980s.
Justice S.K. Kaul in his concurring verdict observed — ‘I recommend the setting up of an impartial truth and reconciliation commission. The Commission will investigate and report on the violation of human rights both by State and non-State actors perpetrated in Jammu & Kashmir at least since the 1980s and recommend measures for reconciliation.’
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However, considering the sensitivities of the issues involved, Justice Kaul said that it was up to the government to decide how the Commission must be set up.
‘This Commission should be set up expediently, before memory escapes. The exercise should be time-bound. There is already an entire generation of youth that has grown up with feelings of distrust and it is to them that we owe the greatest duty of reparation’, he underscored.
He however cautioned that the Commission once constituted should not ‘turn into a criminal court’ and must offer a platform for dialogue instead — ‘As a word of caution, the Commission, once constituted, should not turn into a criminal court and must instead follow a humanized and personalized process enabling people to share what they have been through uninhibitedly. It should be based on dialogue, allowing for different viewpoints and inputs from all sides’.
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He also referred to a similar commission set up by South Africa to investigate human rights violations perpetrated by the apartheid regime and further stated that in the past, calls for setting up such commissions were echoed by different sections of the Kashmir Valley.
Pointing out that there is an absence of a ‘commonly accepted narrative of what has happened’, Justice Kaul reasoned that such a Commission will help in the ‘collective telling of the truth’.
‘This will facilitate a reparative approach that enables forgiveness for the wounds of the past, and forms the basis of achieving a shared national identity... It is my sincere hope that much will be achieved when Kashmiris open their hearts to embracing the past and facilitate the people who were compelled to migrate to come back with dignity. Whatever has been, has been but the future is ours to see’, the judge concluded.
Such commissions have been set up in many countries of Latin America and Africa and are meant to probe human rights abuses and restore peace between communities following internal armed conflicts. India’s neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal have also set up truth commissions in the past. These commissions prioritise collecting information and evidence from both the victims and the perpetrators of violence, rather than on prosecution and punishment for crimes.
