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Appeal to UN Special Rapporteur on Situation of Human Rights Defenders regarding Prosecution of Teesta Setalvad by Govt. of India

28 July 2015

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siawi.org - 28 July 2015

Michel Forst
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders
c/o Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
urgent-action@ohchr.org

July 28, 2015

Re: Urgent Appeal Concerning the Prosecution of Human Rights Defender Teesta Setalvad by the Government of India

Dear Special Rapporteur Forst:

We write to inform you of the urgent situation of human rights defender Teesta Setalvad who is facing criminal prosecution in India. In the course of the Indian government’s investigation, Ms. Setalvad has had her home raided, her bank accounts frozen, her freedom to leave the country suspended, and her privacy invaded by multiple interrogations. She also faces constant fear of possible detention and subsequent ill-treatment. The practices she has endured so far are characteristic of the Indian government’s pattern of harassing activists using the machinery of the criminal justice system. It is not a coincidence that this machinery has been mobilized against Ms. Setalvad on the eve of a crucial hearing in the Zakia Jafri case on which she has been tirelessly working, and in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is accused of complicity in the 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. We write to ask you to kindly intervene on Ms. Setalvad’s behalf and to urge the Indian government to cease its inappropriate use of criminal prosecution to deter her human rights activism.

Ms. Setalvad is well-known for assisting victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots in which thousands of Muslims were tortured and killed. Her work has led to the successful prosecution of many government officials for their role in both inciting the violence and failing to adequately respond to the crisis. Currently, she is seeking justice on behalf of Zakia Jafri, the widow of Indian politician Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the riots as he awaited police assistance that would never come. The Jafri case names Prime Minister Modi as one of the government officials whose inaction ensured Jafri’s violent death.

Since Ms. Setalvad began her search for the truth about the Gujarat riots, she has had many criminal investigations opened against her. In 2004, she was accused of coercing false testimony from a witness, and in 2010, she was charged with illegally exhuming the bodies of Gujarat riot victims. These charges were rejected by the Supreme Court of India as “spurious†and intended to “victimise†Setalvad. In August 2014, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted two more First Information Reports (FIRs) (formal complaints with the police) against her for hate speech following a tweet she posted criticizing Hindu extremism. Although Ms. Setalvad immediately removed and apologized for the tweet, the crime branch of the CBI served her a notice to appear and she was questioned for six hours.

Recently, the Indian government has increased its harassment of Ms. Setalvad, again using criminal investigation as a tool to stop her human rights work. The Modi government has accused her of embezzling funds donated to the organization she founded to expose human rights violations, Sabrang Communications. In 2000, Sabrang Communications received the Prince Claus International Award for Exceptional Initiative in the field of Journalism and Development for their weekly magazine Communalism Combat. Sabrang Communications then applied for and was granted permission to receive the award by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreign Contribution Regulation Act Division. Although Sabrang Communications received permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs, another FIR was lodged against Ms. Setalvad and her organization in January 2014. After the FIR was lodged, Ms. Setalvad and Sabrang Communications had their personal and organizational bank accounts frozen.

Ms. Setalvad has had protection against arrest granted by the Supreme Court since February 2015. Frustrated by their inability to arrest Ms. Setalvad, the government wrote a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs alleging violations of the FRCA Act, which regulates foreign donations, by all three of Ms. Setalvad’s organizations: Sabrang Communications, Sabrang Trust, and Citizens for Justice and Peace. Ms. Setalvad has complied with the investigations into all of her organizations, supplying copies of all requested documents and complying with all requests for information. In June 2015, the Ministry of Home Affairs passed the investigation of Sabrang Communications to the CBI. Ms. Setalvad wrote to the CBI providing a detailed background of the matter and continued to comply with the investigation. On July 8, 2015 the CBI lodged yet another an FIR against Ms. Setalvad claiming more violations of the FCRA Act. Subsequently, Ms. Setalvad’s home was raided by the CBI on July 13 and 14, 2015. The CBI has called her for questioning almost daily in the lead-up to the Zakia Jafri hearing, preventing her from doing critical preparatory work on the case.

Ms. Setalvad’s freedoms to express her opinion and seek information about the Gujarat riots are protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a state party. She is also protected by The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders which guarantees state protection from retaliation and arbitrary action as a consequence of exercising the right to defend human rights. Article 12, Paragraph 3 of the Declaration establishes that “everyone is entitled...to be protected effectively under national law in reacting against or opposing, through peaceful means, activities and acts, including those by omission, attributable to States that result in violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.†The Declaration calls upon states to use their justice systems to defend human rights activists. The Indian government’s use of its justice system to arbitrarily punish activists instead is in contravention of the Declaration. The Commentary to the Declaration reiterates this by specifically identifying arbitrary arrest and prosecution of human rights defenders as key obstacles to the implementation of the Declaration. The Commentary also notes with particular concern the situation of women human rights defenders such as Ms. Setalvad, who face special hurdles in their human rights work because of their perceived challenge of gender norms.

Ms. Setalvad has also been harassed extensively by groups and individuals not associated with the government. A group of aggressive men have come to her home demanding to see her. She has been attacked publicly by politicians in their speeches. She has been threatened in anonymous phone calls with sexual violence. In this atmosphere, the government has aligned itself with her attackers, rather than providing her with the protection that is her right as a human rights defender.

We fear that without international attention to her case, she will face ongoing, and even graver abuse. As of this writing on July 24, 2015, Ms. Setalvad has been granted interim bail by the Bombay High Court, allowing her to avoid arrest for two more weeks. This was after Ms. Setalvad moved her case to the High Court after appearing at a special CBI court, which had rejected bail and denied her an extension of protections against arrest. Furthermore, the CBI had requested to interrogate Ms. Setalvad in custody every single day, but the Bombay High Court denied their request. The attempt by the CBI to interrogate Ms. Setalvad in custody daily is just one more example of their interference with the Zakia Jafri court case and the harassment Ms. Setalvad is facing.

We are very concerned about Ms. Setalvad’s situation after those two weeks, given the previous actions taken by the Modi government against activists earlier this year, such as a Greenpeace activist who was blocked from traveling and human rights lawyers in Gujarat who were also subject to FIRs for allegedly coercing witnesses. The Indian government, by continuing to harass those who speak out against it, is failing to respect activists’ civil and political rights and undermining the implementation of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. In closing, we repeat our request for you to urge the Indian government to use its justice system to protect activists like Teesta Setalvad, rather than continuing to impede their important work. The charges against Ms. Setalvad should be dropped and she should be allowed to freely continue to seek truth and justice on behalf of the Gujarat riot victims. Thank you for any urgent intervention you are able to make on her behalf. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Bunch,
Professor in Women and Gender Studies. Founding Director and Senior Scholar, at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University. Member of the Advisory Committee for theHuman Rights Watch Women’s Rights Division. Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights
USA

Marieme Helie Lucas,
Epistemology and methodology in the Social Sciences, Algiers University (retired). Founder and former international coordinator of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws international solidarity network. Founder of Secularism Is A Women’s Issue.
Algeria

Lino Veljak,
Professor of Philosophy, Dean of Ontology and Epistemology, Philosophy Department, Zagreb University. Co-founder of Protagoras, protecting the values of secularism and human rights
Croatia

Stasa Zajovic,
Co-Founder and Coordinator of Women in Black-Belgrade. Founder of the Coalition for a Secular State, promoting women’s human rights, women’s peace politics, interethnic and intercultural solidarity. Awarded Millenium Peace Prize
Serbia