Jammu and Kashmir will have two model villages for human rights. According to the chairman of the State Human Rights Commission, Justice Bilal Nazki, the model villages will be established in the state and it will be ensured that no human rights violation takes places in the villages.
Justice Nazki, who was host at the newsroom trial of Rising Kashmir, a local English daily, said any complaint by anyone in the village will be dealt according to the law. “For example, someone is needed in the police station. The police have to send him a notice and summon him to the police station. We will ensure that the law is followed,” Justice Nazki said. He said the concept of the model villages will sensitize people and the state officials about the human rights.
The SHRC is often being described as the toothless body as its recommendations are not binding on the government. Since its establishment in 1997, the Commission has registered 5153 cases and has disposed of 3995 complaints. In the case human rights abuses committed by the security forces, the Commission often recommends compensation money for the victim or his family. Justice Nazki said that the government has often complied with the directions of the Commission.
But the Commission this year had directed the State government to provide Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the civilian Farooq Ahmad Dar used as a 'human shield' by the Army on April 9. The government has filed counter against it.
In the case, the SHRC had not issued directions to the Army saying: "it does not have jurisdiction over the Army."
On April 9 during the by-poll to the parliamentary seat of Srinagar, Dar was tied to the bonnet of an Army vehicle and taken around through several villages.
Senior Army officials and central government functionaries later claimed that Army personnel had tied Farooq Dar to the jeep as a ‘human shield’ to deter people from throwing stones at their convoy.
On the basis of reports from the Jammu and Kashmir Police and statements by doctors from government hospitals in Srinagar, the SHRC ruled that Farooq Dar “did not suffer only humiliation publically but also suffered trauma which resulted in psychiatric stress which may remain with him for the rest of his life”.
Justice Nazki evaded the question about the legality of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the model villages.
Prosecutions of security force personnel in J&K have seldom progressed due to restrictions imposed by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1990 (AFSPA).
Section 7 of the AFSPA provides immunity for human rights violations by security force personnel, as any civilian prosecution can only proceed after obtaining prior sanction from the central government. In the 27 years that the law has been in force in Jammu and Kashmir, not once has sanction been granted by the central government
The AFSPA was implemented in J&K on September 10, 1990, after a notification was issued by the State government declaring Kashmir Valley as the disturbed area under section 3 of law. Later on August 10, 2001, the State government extending disturbed area provision to Jammu province.
During his tenure of six years, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah constantly demanded the gradual withdrawal of the AFSPA from peaceful areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The Army has been rejecting any proposal to withdraw AFSPA even from Srinagar and Jammu.