Khurram Parvez

Khurram Parvez, 41, was born and raised in Srinagar, the summer capital of the disputed Indian Administered Kashmir. He was very active in student politics, and by 1999 had begun actively volunteering with a Srinagar based group working on issues of enforced disappearances called Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP, founded in 1994). Since the year 2002, Khurram is the Coordinator of APDP.

Khurram is also the Programme Coordinator for Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) since 2000. JKCCS is a non-funded and voluntary amalgam of individuals and groups, formed with the aim of creating a space for independent rights based dialogue and documentation in Indian Administered Kashmir. JKCCS has been producing reports and documentation of human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir which can be assessed at http://www.jkccs.net.

Since 2014, Khurram is also working as the Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD). AFAD is a regional network of Asian organizations working on the issue of Enforced Disappearances.

Khurram was severely injured in April 2004, when a vehicle he was travelling during field work for JKCCS, was hit in an IED explosion leading to the death of two of his colleagues, and the eventual amputation of his right leg. He thereafter became actively engaged with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which in 2007 resulted in the signing of the Unilateral Declaration of Mine Ban by United Jehad Council which is an amalgam of various militant organizations operating in Indian Administered Kashmir.

In September 2016, Khurram prevented from attending the UN Human Rights Council session at Geneva and immediately after was detained under the repressive JK Public Safety Act (PSA), in a jail in Jammu region, 300 kilometres away from his home in Srinagar and released after 76 days.

In 2006, Khurram was awarded the prestigious Reebok Human Rights Award for his significant work for human rights causes through non-violent means. He was also a recipient of a prestigious Chevening Fellowship at University of Glasgow, UK from December 2005 to April 2006, and the International Visitors’ Leadership Program, a United States Government’s programme for mid-career professionals in 2009.