International Women’s Day

Lord Hussain Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hussain (LD)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, for introducing this debate. We in the western democracies are discussing gender balance in our places of work and promotion and retention of women in senior jobs, and addressing equal pay deficiencies and equal rights in the private and public life of women, but at the same time in many parts of the world women are still mistreated and abused openly, under complete impunity with the full knowledge and protection of the authorities. Rape of women and girls is used as a weapon of war.

One such country, where women live in the most appalling conditions, is a close friend of the United Kingdom, a member of the British Commonwealth and the proclaimed largest democracy in the world: India, specifically Kashmir, where, according to many international human rights organisations, the army frequently forces its way into people’s homes in the darkness of night, beating up men and women, young and old, and taking young men to unknown detention centres often far from their homes. Tens of thousands of men have been taken away and have not come back for a very long time. The whereabouts of many are still not known to their families. Thousands of women, whose husbands have been missing for decades, are known as half-widows. The discovery of thousands of mass graves in Kashmir adds to the worry and agony of these women. They spend the rest of their lives searching for their loved ones.

To add to their dreadful conditions, those women are often gang-raped by the country’s army with complete impunity. There are many cases in Kashmir of rape carried out by the Indian Armed Forces. Some of these cases are well documented and have received worldwide press coverage, but to my knowledge no prosecution has ever taken place. For example, if you google “Kunan Poshpora rape case” you will find reports from Amnesty International, the UN Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and Indian human rights organisations, reported by the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, the Indian Express, the Diplomat, the Hindustan Times, Greater Kashmir, the Asian Age and many other media groups. This case is 30 years’ old: an entire army unit moved into two adjoining villages, took the men and boys out to the nearby army camp and gang-raped women from eight years of age to 80. Despite the worldwide uproar, no prosecution has ever taken place, as the army is protected under the Indian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. I understand that the Indian Army is continuously using rape as a weapon of war in Kashmir; there are many more cases of this nature, taking the number of victims into the thousands.

Just for a moment, put yourselves in the place of the Kashmiri women and think what you would ask of parliamentarians from countries such as the United Kingdom? I have raised the plight of Kashmiri women many times from the Floor of this House, unfortunately without getting a satisfactory answer from Ministers. Will noble Lords join me in asking the Minister what the Government are prepared to do to get justice for these Kashmiri victims of state-led brutalities? Will she ask the Foreign Secretary to raise this with his Indian counterpart before we sign more trade deals with India, to bring an end to the impunity provided by the Indian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and bring those responsible for these horrendous crimes to justice?