Author Archives: Govind Acharya

About Govind Acharya

Govind Acharya is a Country Specialist in the South Asia Coordination Group. He has been a country specialist for India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Afghanistan at various times over the past decade. Govind also served on AIUSA's terrorism task force, which looked developing campaigning on terrorism. He's a former staffer at the International Secretariat, serving as the interim Head of the Afghanistan Office shortly after the Taliban was evicted from power in 2002. He was also on the Amnesty USA Board of Directors from 2004 - 2007. Govind is an economist by training who has done graduate work at Cornell University on the economic basis for the right to food in India.
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Crackdown on Activists in Central India Continues

November 11, 2011 at 11:21 AM

Thanks to your work, Indian indigenous (adivasi) human rights activist Kopa Kunjam was released in early October. Mr. Kunjam had been in jail since December of 2009 for his peaceful activism on behalf of adivasis affected by the conflict between Maoist insurgents and the state government of Chhattisgarh, India.

While we’re thankful for Mr. Kunjam’s release, other non-violent activists continue to be jailed in Chhattisgarh for criticizing the state government, Dr. Binayak Sen being the best known.  The latest arrests include human rights activist Soni Sodi and her nephew, journalist Lingaram Kodopi, outspoken critics of human rights abuses in the region who were arrested on false charges by the Chhattisgarh government.

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Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan

October 31, 2011 at 2:35 PM
Zahida Sharif

Zahida Sharif holding a picture of her husband, 48-year old Dr.Abid Sharif, June 2010

“My son was born seven months after my husband went missing…he has never met his father, he just looks at his pictures.”

Across South Asia, thousands of people disappear in the context of violence against the state. These thousands are often caught in the crossfire between security forces and militants. You can help by taking action now.

The practice of enforced disappearances has increased dramatically since Pakistan joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001. Disappearances occur across the country but especially in Balochistan province in the south-west, which faces violence from ethnic and religious armed groups and state security forces. Activists, journalists, and students have been especially targeted and an increasing number have been found dead with their bodies showing signs of torture.

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Kashmir Legislators Must Not Ignore Human Rights

September 27, 2011 at 1:20 PM

Click image to enlarge. Copyright: Malik Sajad, used by permission

Yesterday, Amnesty International wrote an open letter to all members of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) State Assembly calling on them to take action to protect human rights and to investigate past human rights violations.

Among the actions we are calling for legislators to accomplish in this session:

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Amnesty Groups Mobilize for Rights of Indigenous People in India

September 23, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Kartam Joga

Human rights defender and prisoner of conscience, Kartam Joga.

Since 2005, Chhattisgarh has been at war with armed Maoist insurgents while aggressively pursuing massive and environmentally destructive development projects.

Not surprisingly, human rights have been pushed aside as an impediment to fighting terrorism and as a hindrance to development. Again and again, the Chhattisgarh government has jailed human rights, environmental, and indigenous activists on politically-motivated charges including Binayak Sen, Kartam Joga, Kopa Kunjam, Ramesh Agrawal, Harihar Patel, and most recently Lingaram Kodopi .

It has created and supported armed ant-Maoist militias that the Indian Supreme Court has since ruled unconstitutional. Thousands of locals caught in the crossfire or suspected of being Maoist sympathizers have been killed, tens of thousands have been forced from their homes. Rapes and extrajudicial killings are carried out with impunity.

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Going to School and Being Ambushed By Gunmen

September 13, 2011 at 1:27 PM

Pakistani rescue personnel collect evidence from a similar bombing in Matani ©AFP/Getty Images

My daughter just started kindergarten but for us it’s just a 2 minute bike ride to the school. In some places however, going to school can be a death sentence.

The BBC is reporting that gunman opened fire on a school bus south of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtukhwa province (formerly the Northwest Frontier Province) killing 5 school children between the ages of 9 and 14.

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Thousands of Unmarked Graves Discovered in Kashmir

August 23, 2011 at 9:52 AM

For more commentary of Kashmir and India as a whole, please follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/acharya_dude. 

Following a report by a police investigation team, confirming the existence of over 2,700 unmarked graves containing bodies of people subject to enforced disappearances, urgent action needs to be taken including preserving the evidence and widening the investigation across Jammu and Kashmir.

Over 2,700 unmarked graves have been identified by the 11-member police team of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in four districts of north Kashmir. Despite claims of the local police that the graves contained dead bodies of “unidentified militants”, the report points out that 574 bodies have been identified as disappeared locals – 17 of these have already been exhumed and shifted to family or village grave sites.

The police report concludes that there is “every probability” that the remaining over 2,100 unidentified graves “may contain the dead bodies of [persons subject to] enforced disappearances.” The report further clarifies that the only way to negate such a claim is to study the DNA profiles of the unidentified dead bodies and warns that in the absence of such tests, “it has to be assumed/ presumed that [the] State wants to remain silent deliberately to hide the Human Rights violations”.

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A Murder and Anti-Corruption Protests in India

August 16, 2011 at 2:09 PM

It’s crazy season now in India’s capital. But the normally darkly humorous unpredictability of Indian politics has now taken a dark turn with the tragic murder of a right to information activist Shehla Masood in front of her home in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh.

She was a twitter follower of mine (you can also follow me at @acharya_dude) and I admired her perseverance and thirst for social justice. I only hope that her dreams of an end to corruption and human rights violations will be fulfilled in the long term. In the short term, the authorities must launch an investigation into this murder and take action to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of this crime.

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Will India Step Up to the Plate on Syria?

August 3, 2011 at 11:46 AM

Now’s the time folks to take action to urge the Indian External Affairs Minister (and the Foreign Ministers of Brazil and South Africa) to stop blocking a UN resolution condemning the Syrian Government’s massacres of its own civilians.

India’s foreign policy mandarins and their media compatriots have been talking up how awesome it is that India is now an “emerging power” in the world. It wouldn’t be a bad thing in theory given that India’s democratic government and vibrant civil society is indeed a wonderful thing to behold. But, India’s foreign policy, especially since the early part of the last decade has been the definition of passive aggressive.

But now, India is on the UN Security Council and they have an opportunity to change their behavior. I’m not optimistic though given their tendency to abstain from decision that require hard choices.

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Hopefully Kashmir Won't Be a Forgotten Conflict

August 2, 2011 at 11:36 AM

Abid Nabi was protesting against the killing of his younger brother Fida (17 yrs old). (Photo courtesy of Majid Pandit.)

Al-Jazeera English launched a special human rights spotlight on Jammu & Kashmir called “Kashmir: The Forgotten Conflict”.

It’s an apt description given the difficulty human rights organizations have faced in highlighting the abuses that have occurred in the past two decades. For example, we need 30,000 signatures on this petition to improve juvenile justice in the state!

Now, it’s not to say that Kashmir never gets in the news. The problem is that when it is in the news it’s always talked about in the context of the Pakistan-India conflict.

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Victory for a Clean Environment in India

July 23, 2011 at 9:00 AM

In a victory for human rights, the High Court of the Indian state of Orissa has upheld the Indian government’s 2010 decision to reject UK-based Vedanta Resources’ plans for the six-fold expansion of the Lanjigarh aluminum refinery, finding that the project violated the country’s environmental laws. Vedanta Aluminum had challenged the Ministry of Environment and Forest‘s decision in the High Court in November 2010.

Villager india

A meeting of villagers opposing the Tata Steel project, Jaipur District, Orissa, India, 2008. © Johann Rousselot

Residents of 12 villages who live in the shadow of the massive refinery – mostly Adivasi (indigenous) and Dalit communities who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods – have long campaigned against the expansion, arguing it would further pollute their land and water.

The refinery, which has been in operation for four years, fails to meet accepted national and international standards in relation to its environmental, social and human rights impact. The authorities must order an immediate clean-up of the site and monitor the health status of the local communities.

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