Abstract

Democracies empower people to make decisions. Consequent upon the ideal impressions of Democracy, there ought to have been no scope for the human rights violation in a democratic society. But once we introspect the society of Kashmir (in India), the realistic form of democracy is lagging.  Over the past two decades, in particular, the suffering of the Kashmiri people has reached an indescribable intensity and magnitude. All human rights enshrined in the United Nation’s Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the human rights covenants have been flagrantly violated. Although various attempts have been made by the existing rule of law to minimize the human rights violation, these efforts continues to prove null. One such attempt was to re-democratize the Kashmir in 1996 but human rights continue to be violated. The issue lies in the background that the concept of Democracy as practiced by the Administrators and the way the people understand it are poles apart. Democracy needs to be redefined and practiced by minimizing the gap between how people understand it and how it is to be implemented. The present paper attempts to study the various issues related to democracy and the human rights violations by focusing on the conflict situation of Kashmir wherein the practiced democracy continues to be ineffective for controlling the human rights violation.

Key words:  Democracy, human rights, Kashmir, public safety act, armed forces special powers act, self-determination.