Kashmir Civitas, a Canadian-registered NGO, has partnered with the Russell Foundation in London, UK, the Permanent People’s Tribunal of Bologna, Italy, the International University of Sarajevo and the Center for Advanced Studies in Sarajevo to hold the inaugural Russell Tribunal on Kashmir in Sara-jevo, Bosnia, on December 17-19.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the tribu-nal will highlight the grave issue of genocide, set-tler-colonialism, crimes against humanity and nu-clear threat emerging in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
A panel of judges will listen to the proceedings and, thereafter, finalize a report that will be distrib-uted to UN agencies, EU parliament and other world bodies and governments.
The attendees/invitations include international lawyer, Richard Falk, Professor Anthony Carty, Yvonne Ridley, David Hearst, Pepe Escobar, Jona-thon Brown, Edward Moad, Tarek Cherkaoui, Khaled Beydoun, Dalia Mogahed Omar Suleiman and many more.
The Russell Tribunal on War Crimes in Kash-mir aims to reaffirm the primacy of international law as the basis for solving the Kashmir dispute. Moreover, it aims to raise awareness of the respon-sibility of the international community to prevent ongoing crimes against humanity and the potential for genocide to occur.
Kashmir Civitas, a Canadian registered NGO, has partnered with the World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (Not-tingham, UK), the Permanent People’s Tribunal of Bologna, Italy, Nahla (Center for Education and Research), the Center for Advanced Study in Sara-jevo, and International University of Sarajevo (IUS) and Aljazeera Balkans, to hold the maiden Russell Tribunal on Kashmir in Sarajevo, Bosnia on De-cember 17-19, 2021.
Together, this tribunal aims to highlight the grave crimes against humanity, including genocide, that are occurring in the Indian occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The seriousness of these crimes is what motivated us to bring this to the at-tention of the world, since it is a direct threat to global peace.
This foundational international event, the first of many tribunals being planned over the coming years, aims to set the stage for exposing the serious-ness of the Kashmir conflict. More specifically, the focus of the tribunal will be on 4 thematic areas: (a) Genocide, including a discussion on the Jammu Genocide in which an estimated 230,000 – 500,000 people were killed. (b) De-Colonization, Kashmir is not a secessionist/separatist movement, but a de-colonial movement; (c) Settler-Colonialism (land-grabs, coercive patriotism etc); (d) Crimes Against Humanity and Nuclear War – mass graves, rape as a weapon of war, and the everpresent threat of nuclear war in this contested region.
This tribunal brings together key global personalities, academics and celebrities to highlight the ongoing genocide, massive violations of human rights, crimes against humanity, and political op-pression of the people in the disputed territory of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. In actuality, Russell Tribunal on War Crimes in Kashmir 2021 aims to replicate the significance and impact of the Russell Tribunal on Vietnam that gained worldwide press coverage and had a clear, discernible impact on transforming the narrative on Vietnam.
For that reason, and in paying homage to the courage of Professor Bertrand Russell, who dared to challenge American hegemony at the height of its power, we use that model to expose the crimes of India in Kashmir. Likewise, the Russell Tribunal on Kashmir aims to reaffirm the primacy of interna-tional law as the basis for solving the Kashmir con-flict. Moreover, it aims to raise awareness of the responsibility of the international community to prevent ongoing crimes against humanity and the potential for genocide to occur.
Undoubtedly, the seriousness of this tribunal is in the transparent, democratic and rigorous scientific methods it will use to put forward its case against the Indian state. Such transparency is essential to ensure that the process and outcome remain unblem-ished, which can thereby substantiate the aspirations of the people of the disputed territory.
Moreover, it is not required for all who partici-pate to subscribe to a certain viewpoint, or even agree with the collective aspiration of those present. This tribunal’s singular aim is to put forward the facts on Kashmir, and center the voice of the pri-mary religious/ethnic demographic while champion-ing the rights of minorities.
