28 November 2011
1. This stakeholders’ report is the joint submission by the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and UN, prepared through a collective consultative process, consisting of informal and formal meetings, conducted from September to November 2011. This coalition is the outcome of the collective engagement with the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders during her visit in January 2011.
2. The report highlights key features of the unacceptable human rights situation prevailing in the frontier State of Manipur in the so-called North-Eastern region of India. It provides vital supplemental information in the examination of India’s human rights situation during the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review conducted by the UN Human Rights Council.
3. The North East region is inhabited by over 220 distinct peoples or communities, classified as tribes, ethnics or backward classes, with as many languages. Over the last two decades, these communities asserted their identities as “indigenous peoples”.
4. Manipur is one of the seven Himalayan provinces in the region, which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. Manipur, inhabited by more than 30 indigenous communities, is rich in biological diversity and natural resources.
5. Manipur was a sovereign state1 until its subjugation by British in 1891. With the lapse of British paramountcy she regained her sovereign status on 14 August 1947. A constitutional monarchy was established under the Manipur Constitution Act, 1947 after electing a Manipur State Assembly and a Council of Ministers, through adult franchise. But the nascent democracy was summarily dissolved with the annexation of Manipur into the Dominion of India in 1949. No referendum or plebiscite of the people of Manipur was solicited thereby denying the right to self-determination of the nation. The forcible annexation and subsequent military occupation was resisted democratically ever since and escalated into an open armed conflict by 1978.
6. The Government of India (GoI) continues to insist on a military response to the political struggle in Manipur, by enacting emergency legislations. Massive deployment of armed forces and military actions are undertaken under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA). Security apparatuses and legislation, such as the (i) Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA), (ii) Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act 1911, (iii) Official Secrets Act 1923, (iv) Maintenance of Public Order Act 1947, (v) Punjab Security of the State Act 1953, (vi) National Security Act, 1980 (NSA), (vii) Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA), (viii) Code of Criminal Procedures (Manipur Amendment) Act 1983, and (ix) National Investigation Agency Act 2008 (NIA) were introduced.
Click here to read the full civil society submission.
You can also read the draft submission of Government of India to the UPR here. Comments of the civil society coalition made on 20 Jan 2012 to the government submission is available here.
