Guest contribution by Warda K.

Arbitrary arrests. Administrative detention. Abductions. Enforced disappearances. Torture. Rape. Beatings. Interrogation centers. Detention camps. Secret prisons. Unprovoked attacks on peaceful protesters. No right of free movement. Censorship of Information. Discrimination. Intimidation. Humiliation. Military-enforced curfew. Property destruction. Mass graves. Gang rapes. Ethnic cleansing. Occupation. These are words that immediately bring to mind the brutal 64-year-old occupation of Palestine by the Apartheid State of Israel. However the perpetrator of these identical heinous crimes committed under a 62-year military occupation in Kashmir, is the Republic of India.

Today is International Women’s Day, and so we celebrate women from around the world for their dedication, compassion, and strength. It is among them that we must acknowledge the valiant women of Palestine and Kashmir, who continue to endure decades of brutal, repressive, and inhumane military occupations. Under the belligerent occupation by Israel and India, countless women have lost their loved ones to a a systematic and predetermined crime, as Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance.

International Human Rights Law states that an enforced disappearance is an arbitrary abduction or detention of a person by a state or a political organization, who conceals the whereabouts and denies custody, which ultimately, places the detainee outside of the protection of the law. Amnesty International recognizes enforced disappearances a crime against humanity, as it directly violates, “the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to a fair trial, or if killed, the right to life.” [Read more...]