Kashmir: Index | News | Initiatives | Organizations

WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY RESOURCES: KASHMIR
Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements | UN Documents | Government Statements and Reports | Books, Journals and Articles

Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements

Conflict rape victims: abandoned and forgotten. No documentation or official figures available
Syed Junaid Hashmi, Countercurrents, March 31, 2007
Deserted by their families, abandoned by society, forgotten by both separatists and mainstream political parties, rape victims during the last seventeen years of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir live an appalling life. Reports of Kashmir based social organizations put the figure of women raped, molested and abused above one thousand but data compiled by international agencies like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International put the figure around 900.

The Changing Contours of Diplomacy
Evelyn A. Thornton, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace. Working Paper #4. New Delhi: Foundation for Universal Responsibility, 2003.

Transcending Faultlines: The Quest for a Culture of Peace
Ashima Kaul Bhatia, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace. New Delhi: Foundation for Universal Responsibility, 2001

Women and Kashmir
Sumona DasGupta, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace. New Delhi: Foundation for Universal Responsibility, 2001

Kashmir: Save the Honour of Kashmir's Women
South Asian Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR), 14 August 2001

Kashmir: The Journey in Quest of Peace
Dr. Syeda Siyidaim Hameed, Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA), Delhi, India, Summer 2000
A delegation from WIPSA visited Jammu and Kashmir from 24 June-3 July 2000. The report published after this visit records voices of the people of Kashmir and Jammu in WIPSA’s effort to create a women’s intervention for peace in the region.

Behind the Kashmiri Conflict: Abuses by Indian Security Forces and Militant Groups Continue
Human Rights Watch, July 1, 1999
In this report, Human Rights Watch charges that human rights violations, including systematic sexual abuses of women, by all parties in Kashmir have been a critical factor behind the current conflict.

Tales of Torture and Custodial Killings
Statement by the Women's Initiative Bombay on the situation of women and children in Kashmir, which emerged from a fact-finding mission in 1997 sponsored by Lawyers for from Human Rights, Bombay and Indian People`s Human Rights.

UN Documents

UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP)
Deployed in 1949 to supervise the ceasefire agreed between India and Pakistan in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

UN Security Council Resolutions Regarding Kashmir
Resolution 38 (1948); Resolution 47 (1948); Resolution 51 (1948); Resolution 80 (1950); Resolution 91 (1951); Resolution 96 (1951); Resolution 98 (1952); Resolution 122 (1957); Resolution 215 (1965); Resolution 307 (1971)

Government Statements and Reports

India's Initial Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
Indian government, CEDAW/C/IND/1, 10 March 1999
Examined by the Committee at the 22nd session (2000) of CEDAW.

Books, Journals and Articles

Acha Peace Bulletin
Association for Communal Harmony in Asia

Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India
Pervez Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Film, Eqbal Ahmad Foundation, 2004 (45 minutes)

Everyone Has Lost
Beena Sarwar, 11 July 2004
A review of the 2003 documentary, "Autumn's Final Country" in which four displaced women in Kashmir discuss their lives with Indian journalist and peace activist Sonia Jabbar.

When the Storm Came
Shilpi Gupta, Film, 2003
This film tells the story. through interviews with villagers, of the impact of rape when used as a weapon of war, contextualized within the complex relations among Pakistan, India and Kashmir. In particular, the film recaptures the night of February 23, 1991 when Indian security forces committed mass rape, and Gupta depicts the impact that rape has had on the community up to today.

Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths toPeace
Sumantra Bose, Harvard University Press, 2003
Bose explores the complex historical roots of violence and conflict in Kashmir, as well as the more contemporary developments that have exacerbated the communal conflict in Kashmir.
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Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir
Urvashi Butalia (Ed.) London: Zed Books, 2002
Kashmir has been, for some years, a key issue on the Indian political map. More than a decade of conflict has deeply affected people's livelihoods and living environments, their health, their eating habits, their work and workplaces, their access to education. The impact of these things is felt most sharply in the lives of women, and yet, few discussions on Kashmir pay attention to this. This book reflects the range of women's experiences in this conflict. How has the conflict affected them?
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Women Making Peace: Strengthening Women's Role in Peace Process
Rita Manchanda, Bandita Sijapati, and Rebecca Gang. Kathmandu: SAFHR, 2002
This volume addresses the questions and challenges raised by the regional workshop, "Strengthening Women's Role in Peace Process" held by the South Asian Forum on Human Rights in Kathmandu, June 25-28, 2001. The authors examine gender as a potential common bond among different cultures in India. In relation to the conflict in Kashmir they ask whether Kashmiri Hindu and Muslim women can find a common language based on their similar experiences of gendered violence to begin a dialogue of understanding as a path to peace.

Women, War and Peace in SA: Beyond Victimhood to Agency
Rita Manchanda (Ed.) New Delhi: Sage Publication, 2001
Perhaps the first to develop a gender analysis of conflict in South Asia, this volume challenges the centrality of man’s experiences and theorizations of conflict. Instead, it focuses on women’s experiences as representing alternative and non-violent ways of negotiating the construction of conflictual identities, and on women’s perspectives which privilege the notion of a ‘just’ peace.

Women Across Borders in Kashmir: The Continuum of Violence
Asha Hans, Canadian Woman Studies, 19(4), pp. 77-87, Winter 2000

Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition
Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, Rutgers University Press, 1998
This volume offers a feminist reading of partition providing testimonies and memories of women caught in the violence and turmoil of the time. The authors give voice to women who had been previously made invisible by looking at the their experiences of violence , dislocation and displacement from a gendered perspective.
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The Plight of Kashmiri Women
By Dr. Ritu Dewan
This article details some of the incidences of gender-based violence committed by the Indian armed forces in Kashmir.

The Tale of a Besieged Nation
By Dr. Ashish Ghosh, an EC member of AIPRF. following his visit to Jammu-Kashmir in November, 1997.

Voices Unheard: Newsletter of the Kashmiri Women's Initiative for Peace and Disarmament
A quarterly newsletter focusing on human rights violations in Kashmir and Jammu, but in particular the abuses against women and children in conflict zones.

Sada-E-Aman - Voice of Peace - E-Journal
Sada-E-Aman is a bi-weekly E-Journal published by the Kashmir-HR.net, a project of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Sada-E-Aman intends to bring articles relating to the human rights problems faced by the people of Kashmir. We do also have a special concern for women of Kashmir who have faced the worst aspects of life when society is torn apart. Children and women are also long term victims of enforced and involuntary disappearances.

Jammu and Kashmir
Majid A. Siraj, Website
Visit this website to learn about the atrocities committed in Kashmir, and read testimonies of women who have been victims of gendered violence.