Chair of the Bar Council, Richard Atkins QC, and Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC), Schona Jolly QC, have today written to the Prime Minister of India, to express serious concern about multiple reports of the detention of 3000 civilians, including high ranking legal professionals, in the Kashmir Valley.
The letter expresses concern for the effect of the reported communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir, the difficulties in securing free access to the region and the failure to allow independent investigators into the Kashmir Valley.
BHRC Chair Schona Jolly QC said:
“Justice delayed is justice denied. The shockingly slow response of the Indian justice system to these grave and systemic alleged violations of fundamental human rights risks impairing the very essence of the rights themselves.
Meanwhile, accountability for human rights violations continues to be evaded by the refusal to permit independent human rights monitors in to assess the degree of harm subjected upon a civilian population. Both India and Pakistan should permit entry of UN inspectors immediately and unconditionally.”
Read the letter in full here.
