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In February 2002, violence erupted in the state of Gujarat in western India. Some 2000 people, mostly Muslims, were arbitrarily killed and many others were injured and forcedly evicted from their homes and businesses over the course of the following weeks. Violence against women and girls was a key feature of the violence. Scores of Muslim women and girls were sexually violated - raped, gang-raped or mutilated. Many saw their family members killed and their homes and businesses destroyed. After these traumatizing events many women victims were left to care for their family's survival, often in makeshift relief camps with inadequate support, conditions and reparations. For almost three years, the state government of Gujarat and several of its departments have been mentioned as potential participants or inciters of the violence that ripped through the state in early 2002. Allegations of human rights violations have been made against many agents of the state, from the political head of the state, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, to individual doctors and the smallest police stations. Despite the public outrage against the state's neglect for victims, especially women victims of violence, most of these public officials remain in office in Gujarat, and victims' attempts to obtain legal redress have been largely frustrated with few perpetrators being convicted. The state of Gujarat has a history of violence between Hindus and Muslims (so-called "communal violence" ) and while the violence in 2002 followed a fire in a train which killed 59 Hindus, it cannot be likened to earlier patterns of communal violence. In early 2002, the violence was perpetrated primarily by Hindu groups against Muslims. The violence was grounded in the widespread ideology of Hindutva, which sees India as a nation of Hindus. This political ideology uses religion as the basis of nationalism and views Muslims as the enemy or a threat. By looking primarily at the cases of two women survivors, Bilqis Yakoob Rasool and Zahira Sheikh, the report demonstrates a range of failures of the state to fulfil the standard of due diligence under national and international obligations to prevent grave human rights abuses perpetrated against women, protect victims and bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. Failures are identified at all levels: the police, trial court, high court, the state government and central government. - Police in Gujarat failed to fulfil their constitutional obligation to prevent violence and protect victims. In many cases, police reportedly participated and connived in the violence. They thwarted victims' legal redress by failing to accurately register and investigate victims' complaints. - Trial courts in Gujarat failed to ensure reparations and legal redress for victims in a variety of ways, including by their mechanical approach to evidence, failure to use available remedial procedures such as witness protection, and failure to ensure a peaceful atmosphere in the court. - The Gujarat High Court failed to ensure legal redress and reparation for victims, inter alia by failing to use its powers to question the trial courts passive role in their quest for justice. - There was a failure to provide medical relief and medico-legal evidence of victims who had been sexually abused. - Legal redress for women victims has also been frustrated because existing laws relating to rape and sexual assault are inadequate. - The government of Gujarat not only failed to prevent abuses and ensure legal redress, it has also failed to curb hate speech and inflammatory media and maintain strict neutrality with regard to the violence. The state government also showed reluctance to cooperate with the judiciary and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and it resisted public scrutiny. - It failed in provide adequate reparation, including relief, adequate compensation, and rehabilitation. |