UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women RashidaManjoo on 1 May urged the government to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Kashmir and India’s troubled Northeast, local media reported.
“The Act violates international laws India is obliged to follow,”Manjoo told reporters at the UN’s office in Delhi. “The AFSPA and the PSA (Public Safety Act) has mostly resulted in impunity from human rights violations.”
She said the AFSPA protects members of the armed forces from effective prosecution in non-military courts for human rights violations committed against civilians and permits the overriding of due process rights.
The Act gives sweeping powers to troops to arrest, search and even shoot with impunity, she was reported as saying. Manjoo spent the past 10 days in India assessing the situation of violence against women.
“There is a generalised sense of insecurity in public spaces, amenities, and transport facilities in particular, and women are often victims of different forms of sexual harassment and assault,” she said.
She will be presenting her report to the UN in June 2014.