Paris, 2 October 2024. The 50-page report, titled “Your Land is Our Land – India’s land rights violations in Kashmir“, analyses the consequences of the abrogation of Jammu & Kashmir’s statehood on land-related laws and documents the impact of such changes on a range of socio-economic and political rights.
“The Indian government’s obliteration of Jammu & Kashmir’s legal framework, which had protected land rights for decades, has already had a disastrous impact on the Kashmiri people. Thousands have already been evicted from their lands and lost their homes. Key European Union and United Nations institutions, including the UN Human Rights Council, must wake up to this human rights crisis and start putting public pressure on the Indian government to adhere to its own international legal obligations“, said FIDH Asia Desk Deputy Director Juliette Rousselot.
On 5 August 2019, the Indian government unilaterally revoked the special status of Jammu & Kashmir, which had been protected by Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution since 1950. These constitutional safeguards had been a key feature of Jammu & Kashmir’s relationship with India and had also been central to the protection of land rights in Jammu & Kashmir.
By October 2020, the majority of Jammu & Kashmir’s progressive land laws had been either amended or repealed, resulting in evictions, destruction of property, and land confiscation that affected thousands of Kashmiris in violation of international human rights laws and standards.
This story was originally published in fidh.org. Read the full story here.
