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NHRC Orders Solicitation of Affidavits from Victim Families
April 1, 2004 | Comments Off on NHRC Orders Solicitation of Affidavits from Victim Families
After eight years of fighting over legal issues in the Punjab illegal cremations matter, on March 17, 2004, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ordered the Punjab government to publish a notice in several Punjab newspapers, soliciting affidavits by survivors of disappearances and extrajudicial executions from all of Punjab. This notice will include the names of victims who have already been identified in the proceedings, all from Amritsar district, but also ask for affidavits from other survivors of disappearance/killing perpetrated by Punjab’s security forces.
This is a tremendous development and represents a change in track from the previous hearings. At the last hearing in November, Justice Anand, the chair of the NHRC, had called for the reframing of issues. This discussion was not pursued further at the March 17 hearing.
The Association of the Families of the Disappeared will be coordinating the effort to collect affidavits and proformas in response to the NHRC notice, when it is published in May 2004.
The Punjab Justice website has summaries of the latest NHRC hearings. Read the full order from the last hearing.
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