India: Five Years Without an Elected Administration: August 2022 – July 2023 report of The Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir

In an additional counter-affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in July 2023 against petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Presidential Orders of August 5, 2019 (reading down Article 370 of the Indian Constitution), as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of August 9, 2019, the union Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that that the changes wrought by the two actions had ‘brought unprecedented development, progress, security and stability to the region.’1 The facts, however, suggest otherwise. In its three annual and two thematic reports, the Forum has documented over three dozen economic, political and social rights that have been violated between August 2019 and July 2022, including economic losses of over Rs. 50,000 crores at a conservative estimate, vitiation of land and domicile rights, marginalisation and even purges of local personnel in the civil and police services, questionable arrests under draconian legislation, communication bans, media intimidation, and routinised curbs on the freedom of expression and movement. 2 Equally glaring, the right to representation has been denied for five years, as of June 2023. This report on the state of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir between August 2022-July 2023 finds that while there has been improvement on some parameters, human rights violations continue on most. Its findings are as follows: