18 June 2025. On the eve of the 48th birthday of Khurram Parvez, a globally respected human rights defender from Indian-administered Kashmir, we, the undersigned organizations, renew our call for his immediate and unconditional release. Khurram has now spent over three and a half years in arbitrary detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – an Indian
counter-terrorism law that has been widely condemned by experts and the United Nations (UN) for violating legal rules and norms, including by enabling prolonged pre-trial incarceration.
Khurram is the Program Coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and former Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. He was arrested on 22 November 2021 by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and charged under multiple sections of the UAPA and Indian Penal Code. In March 2023, he was further implicated in a second case, alongside Kashmiri journalist and former JKCCS researcher Irfan Mehraj. The case, originally filed in October 2020, seeks to punish their human rights work as “funding terror activities” and the “propagation of secessionist agenda[s].”
In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued an opinion ruling that Khurram’s detention was arbitrary and without legal basis, and urging the government of India to release him immediately and to provide reparation. Multiple other UN Special Procedures have highlighted Khurram’s case as a reprisal for his human rights work including his engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms. They find his detention a violation of binding international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Nonetheless, Khurram continues to be held in a maximum-security prison in New Delhi, India.
Khurram’s continued incarceration is emblematic of Indian authorities’ systematic criminalization of human rights work, denial of the rights to freedom of expression, and the silencing of dissent in Indian-administered Kashmir. Khurram has for years documented human rights violations, including in Indian-administered Kashmir. His work, and that of JKCCS, is widely respected and recognized internationally, as demonstrated by Khurram’s receipt of the Martin Ennals Award in
2023 and the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2006.
As Khurram marks another birthday behind bars, we, the undersigned organizations, call on the government of India to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez, as well as Irfan Mehraj and all human rights defenders unlawfully imprisoned by Indian authorities for their human rights work.
Signed:
Amnesty International
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
CIVICUS
FORUM-ASIA
Frontline Defenders
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Kashmir Law and Justice Project
World Organisation Against Torture, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders