Over 400 Academics Worldwide Demand Immediate Lifting Of Kashmir Blackout newsclick.in

In a letter to a UN body, professors and researchers from universities, such as Yale, Harvard, UCLA, Princeton among others, have also sought immediate release of detainees and curbs on press freedom.

Delhi: Over 400 academics and researchers from the US, India, South Africa, Germany among others, associated with some of the world’s top universities, have expressed “distress” at the situation in Jammu & Kashmir (K&K) and have demanded immediate lifting of the lockdown, opening of communication lines as well as removal of curbs on media to carry forward their duties.

In the letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council during its 42nd session in Geneva, Switzerland, which was made public by Stand With Kashmir, an organisation of Kashmiri diaspora, the academics decried the Indian government’s abrogation of the 70-year-old Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution without consulting the people of the state. The signatories belong to a wide range of subjects in premier institutions, such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown and Brown universities as well as Colorado, Indiana, Oklahoma and Rutgers, among many others.

“As people of conscience who are committed to the principles of freedom, dignity and justice, we refuse to remain silent as India – which touts itself as the international community’s largest democracy – continues its assault on due process, freedom of thought and expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press,” reads the letter.

The letter said its demands for a lifting of the blackout, the release of detainees and allowing news organizations to work without fear and “intimidation, censorship or reprisal” were consistent with India’s obligations as a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.