Several areas in India are beset by armed conflict. The regions of Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, and Chhattisgarh are differently but persistently affected by conflict, with conflict-related issues intermittently occurring in Punjab as well. The conflict in some of these areas has additional international dimensions. Additionally, areas such as Gujarat and Odisha have been impacted by far-reaching violence perpetuated against minority communities. The clinic partnered with the Armed Conflict Resolution and the People’s Rights Project, now the Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Project (Project), a major research initiative of U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender. This collaboration sought to research, analyze, and document the performance of the Indian State in meeting international human rights standards in providing access to justice for victims of internal armed conflict and mass violence in India, particularly women. It also sought to provide recommendations to advocates and policy makers to bring India’s practices in line with these standards.
Access to Justice.
Rape and other forms of sexual violence are common features of protracted conflict and social upheaval that has marred (post)colonial India. The clinic and the project published a report in October 2015, entitled, Access to Justice for Women: India’s Response to Sexual Violence in Conflict and Social Upheaval, which examines emblematic case examples from conflict zones and incidents of mass violence to understand how the Indian State responds to sexual violence against women and girls in these contexts. The goal of this report was to analyze the efforts of women victims of sexual violence and their allies to access justice in these contexts and to identify typical ways the Indian legal system succeeded or failed to provide effective redress. Based on this analysis and applicable international standards, the report makes specific recommendations for action by the Indian State to address critical institutional issues. The report accompanied a monograph by Project principals, Angana P. Chatterji and Mallika Kaur entitled, Conflicted Democracies and Gendered Violence: The Right to Heal, and both publications were released at a launch event at Berkeley Law. Read the Daily Cal article and Berkeley Law story.