Association of the Parents of the Disappeared People publishes an important report on state violence and pellet firing victims

In accordance with reports from other international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights as well as the United Nations’ Office of the Human Rights Commissioner’s 2018 Kashmir-specific report, APDP calls for the following recommendations regarding ongoing use of pellet guns in Kashmir:

• Ban the use of pellet-firing shotguns in Jammu & Kashmir
• Provide full reparation in line with international standards to those who have been injured by pellet-firing shotguns, and to the families of those killed. This must include adequate compensation and rehabilitation, including any medical and psychological care that may be needed.
• Initiate prompt, independent and impartial civilian criminal investigations into all incidents where the use of pellet-firing shotguns led to deaths or serious injuries to establish whether arbitrary or excessive force was used, and where sufficient evidence is found, prosecute those suspected of responsibility in civilian courts.
• Provide relevant training on crowd control measures and the use of force and firearms to security force personnel of the central and state governments, as laid out in the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.
• India must ratify the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and enact domestic legislation against torture consistent with the standards of international human rights law.
• Create a Special Rapporteur with the mandate to investigate and report on crimes against humanity in Kashmir. This would be the first step in setting up credible mechanisms for documentation, accountability and justice, (such as an international criminal tribunal) for human rights abuses in Kashmir over the past three decades. This would include investigation of the serious injuries caused by the use of pellet-firing shotguns as part of wider investigations including extrajudicial executions, torture, gendered and sexualized violence, enforced disappearances, and unknown, unmarked and mass graves.
• Read the whole report here