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- Repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 as recommended by the government-appointed Jeevan Reddy committee.
- Repeal all legal provisions providing effective immunity to police and other security forces, particularly section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibits the prosecution of state officials without permission of the government.
- Amend the Human Rights Protection Act to allow the National Human Rights Commission to independently investigate allegations of abuse by members of the armed forces.
- Investigate and prosecute central government officials, including members of the armed forces, police, and the Assam Rifles found responsible for human rights violations.
- Given the continuing failure of the military justice system to fully and transparently prosecute those responsible for human rights violations, prosecute fairly in civilian courts members of the armed forces and other security forces of all ranks implicated in serious rights abuses. Prosecutions should not be limited to those directly responsible for abuses, but should include persons implicated as a matter of command responsibility, when superiors knew or should have known of ongoing crimes and failed to take action.
- Protect from possible reprisals all witnesses, victims, and others who provide information for criminal prosecutions against government officials, including by establishing an adequately funded witness protection program.
- Strengthen and enforce laws and policies that protect detainees from torture and other mistreatment, including strict implementation of requirements that all detainees be brought before a magistrate or other judicial authority empowered to review the legality of an arrest within 24 hours.
- Allow independent humanitarian and human rights organizations full and unimpeded access to all army and paramilitary interrogation and detention centers. Remove all restrictions on foreigners traveling to Manipur.
- Arrest and prosecute to the full extent of the law all those responsible for the 2004 murder of Thangjam Manorama Devi.
- Call upon the Manipur state government to promptly make public the progress of and findings from its investigations against individuals implicated in serious human rights abuses.
- Urge the Manipur government to strengthen the Manipur Human Rights Commission so that it effectively pursues all complaints of human rights abuses. Ensure that the Commission uses all authority at its disposal including powers of suo motu investigation and subpoena.
- Indian security forces involved in military operations should take all necessary steps to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law. India should ratify the 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
- Thoroughly revise the training curriculum for police, army, and paramilitary forces operating in areas where there is internal conflict to include appropriate training on human rights issues, including lawful interrogation techniques and best practices. All training should be consistent with international human rights standards, such as the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.
- Ratify the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
- Establish an independent, transparent, and impartial commission of inquiry into serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by security forces. Prosecute members of the Manipur police force who have been responsible for human rights violations. Call upon the Indian central government to promptly prosecute those within its jurisdiction found responsible.
- Immediately make public the progress of and findings from investigations against individuals implicated in serious human rights abuses.
- Strengthen the Manipur Human Rights Commission by promptly providing all information required to investigate allegations of abuse by the security forces and militants, ensure that all government officials respond to queries from the commission, and take appropriate action based on the commission’s recommendations.
- Strictly implement the D.K. Basu guidelines issued by the Supreme Court of India to strengthen and enforce laws and policies that protect detainees from torture and other mistreatment, including strict implementation of requirements such as providing an arrest memo and that all detainees be brought before a magistrate or other judicial authority empowered to review the legality of an arrest within 24 hours.
- Immediately take action to determine the fate of those who “disappeared,” including those arbitrarily detained in police stations, all persons detained in army camps or unofficial detention facilities, and those killed, and provide this information to family members.
- Take all necessary steps to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, specifically common article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law.
- End human rights abuses and laws of war violations against civilians, including killings, the use of threats, extortion, the indiscriminate use of landmines, and reprisals against individuals suspected to be informers or supporters of another group.
- End killings of members of immigrant communities, including those in Manipur seeking livelihood opportunities.
- Publicly denounce abuses committed by any militant group and ensure that there is appropriate accountability for such abuses.
- Cease using landmines, bombs, and other forms of attack in a manner that does not discriminate between military objectives and civilians.
- Permit civil society organizations to undertake the full range of protection activities including investigations of abuses committed by militants.
- Immediately stop the abduction and recruitment of children, forced or otherwise, into militant forces.
To Concerned Foreign Governments
- Encourage India to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.
- Urge the government of India and all militant groups to place human rights protection mechanisms at the center of any attempt to resolve the conflict. Press these parties to ensure responsibility for abuses, thereby bringing impunity to an end, without which no sustainable settlement will be possible. All parties should accept responsibility for the excesses committed by each of them, and ensure that an end to impunity and accountability for abuses is the touchstone for a sustainable end to the conflict.
- Publicly and privately condemn violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the Indian security forces.
September 2008
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