MR. OLIVIER DE FROUVILLE
Chairperson
United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances,
Geneva, Switzerland.
Esteemed Chairperson and Members of the UN WGEID,
We, the Council Members of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), would like to bring to the attention of the UN WGEID the issue of continuous denial of travel documents to Mr. Parvez Imroz, AFAD Council Member representing the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Kashmir, India and his colleague Mr. Zahir-ud-Din, who is also member of the association. As you are fully aware, the AFAD has been continuously campaigning against the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in whole Asia. In the course of our work for truth, justice, reparation, redress and memory, our member-organizations are actively engaged in participating in conferences, workshops and meetings organized in different countries.
Unfortunately, our Council Member from Kashmir, India, Mr. Parvez Imroz, a prominent human rights lawyer and legal advisor of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and his colleague Mr. Zahir-ud-din have not been able to participate in our activities because of the continuous denial of travel documents since 2004 by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir.
After expiry of his passport in 2004, Mr. Imroz applied for a new one. But till date, the passport has not been issued to him without any explanation. In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux Award and the organizers, including human rights defenders appealed to the Indian state to issue him the travel documents, so he could receive the award in Paris, but the appeal was rejected. Mr. Zahir-ud-Din’s passport expired in 2004, and he had applied for its re-issuance in the month of August 2004. After few months, Mr. Zahir-ud-Din had approached the passport authority in order to check the status of his application, and the passport authority informed him that the police investigation wing had filed an adverse verification report against him due to which the new passport was not issued to him. Since then Mr. Zahir-ud-din has also been denied the right to travel.
Our Council Member and his colleague were invited to deliberate on the human rights situation particularly on disappearances in Kashmir at many international fora, but due to denial of travel documents, they could not participate. In 2009, Mr. Imroz and his colleague launched a campaign for Right to Travel, but there was no response from the Government of India.
The denial of travel documents is used as a matter of policy to prevent and control the voices of human rights defenders from Kashmir. Our Council Member and his colleague have been deprived of this universally recognized right to freedom of movement, which is guaranteed under Article 13 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Article 12 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 12 of the ICCPR, which India signed and ratified in 1979, guarantees that everyone has the right to leave the country including his own and this right should not be restricted. Further, Article 24, Para 7 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance which India signed on 6 February 2007 establishes that each State Party shall guarantee the right to form and participate freely in organizations and associations concerned with attempting to establish the circumstances of enforced disappearances and the fate of disappeared persons, and to assist victims of enforced disappearance. The denial of travel document also infringes this right.
It is therefore requested that the Working Group calls on the Government of India to immediately issue travel documents to our Council Member Mr Parvez Imroz and his colleague Mr. Zahir-ud-din from Jammu and Kashmir and not to put any restriction on their work for the protection and promotion of human rights.
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Copy to:
- PABLO DE GREIFF
UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence - MARGARET SEKAGGYA
UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders - FRANK LA RUE
UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
THE COUNCIL
ASIAN FEDERATION AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES
Signed:
- MUGIYANTO
Chairperson - MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO
Secretary General - MANDIRA SHARMA
Treasurer - ADILUR RAHMAN KHAN
Odhikar – Bangladesh - WANMA YETTI
Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI) – Indonesia - YATI ANDRIYANI
Commission for the Disappeared Victims of Violence (KontraS) – Indonesia - SANJAY KUMAR GUPTA
Conflict Victims’ Society of Justice (CVSJ) – Nepal - AMBAR BAHADUR RAUT
Advocacy Forum – Nepal - BRITO FERNANDO
Families of the Disappeared (FOD) – Sri Lanka - SISTO DOS SANTOS
Perkumpulan HAK – Timor Leste