Silenced: Respected human rights defender Khurram Parvez detained by Modi government

Khurram Parvez (44) is a human rights defender based in Kashmir. He is the programme coordinator and one of the founders of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), an amalgam of non-funded, non-profit campaign, research and advocacy organisations in Kashmir. He is the chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD).

The crucial human rights work that Khurram has done over the decades makes him a leading global human rights defender. He has widely travelled to understand and work on enforced disappearances in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Philippines – testimony to his important interventions through regional and international campaigns to hold states accountable and not just restrict his work to his native place. 

Under his capable leadership, AFAD was awarded Asia’s top human rights award in 2016. The Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award recognised the “indelible contributions” by AFAD in pushing states to address the rights of families of the disappeared and seeking justice.

JKCCS and Khurram have been engaged in unparalleled work in Kashmir to extensively document human rights violations including mass and unmarked graves, enforced disappearances, torture, killings, sexual violence and communications shutdowns. Some of JKCCS’ crucial works include Buried Evidence, Alleged Perpetrators, Structures of Violence, Torture, Kashmir’s Internet Siege. Khurram is widely revered for his ability to hold scholarly discussions and provide critical insights on varied aspects of human rights, training student interns and bringing forth timely issue-specific reports as well as annual and biannual reviews of human rights in the region. 

Khurram’s work spans more than two decades, starting with his university days in the late Nineties in Kashmir when he started a peer-counselling helpline for students affected by the armed conflict in the region. He took a keen interest in the work of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and subsequently went on to play a crucial role in the formation of JKCCS in 2000. The organisation has produced incisive reports that map the state of human rights in Kashmir and confront the state for its poor record and lack of accountability. 

During an election monitoring exercise with his colleagues in North Kashmir in 2004, he lost a leg after the vehicle they were travelling in was hit by a landmine blast. The incident only strengthened Khurram’s resolve to continue his work and he took keen interest in advocating for landmine removal regionally and globally. He was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2006.

In a reprisal for the work Khurram and JKCCS were doing in 2016 following a long period of civilian killings, he was stopped from travelling to Geneva to attend a session of the UN Human Rights Council. He was arrested from his residence the next day and booked under the Public Safety Act, a draconian preventive detention law that allows for detention without trial for two years. He was released after 76 days. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government detained respected human rights defender Khurram Parvez. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)