Covid-19 Urgent Appeal for Release

Prominent international figures support appeal for release of human rights defenders as India faces Covid emergency

(Last updated 17 June 2021)

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10 June 2021

We urge the immediate release of human rights defenders in India into safe conditions

Accounting for almost a third of deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, the situation in India is grave. We are alarmed that a number of human rights defenders who are currently awaiting trial in Indian jails have developed serious health issues in jail owing to over-congestion and neglect, absence of appropriate medical care, and deplorable hygiene conditions. These political prisoners are now at great risk of contracting the virulent strain of the virus -- which some have already contracted -- and will have no access to prompt medical care that is necessary to save lives. We therefore urgently seek that the temporary administrative order to release prisoners due to the pandemic be applied to political prisoners in India. We strongly believe that by turning a blind eye to the toll exacted by Covid on those it holds in its custody, the government is in violation of its constitutional duty to safeguard the life of these citizens.

Among the thousands in India arrested for “political offences” is a group known as the Bhima-Koregaon (BK)-16: four academics, three lawyers, two independent journalists, a union organizer and social activist, a poet, three performing artists, and a Jesuit priest. A majority of them are senior citizens, some of whom have comorbidities that render them particularly vulnerable. All are human rights defenders with a record of writing, speaking and organizing for the rights of workers, minorities, Dalits, and Adivasis through peaceful and constitutional means. As the deadly second wave of Covid rages, with an equally serious third wave anticipated, the overcrowded prisons face severe water shortage and lack the medical equipment and personnel necessary to fight Covid. At least six of the arrested have contracted Covid-19, others have reported various acute infections and a rapid deterioration of health. Two of the BK-16 were recently shifted to multi-specialty hospitals after intense advocacy from family members and concerned citizens. Last year, one of the 16, an 80-year old poet, received temporary bail on medical grounds after weeks of hospitalization, at a moment when it was feared that he may die in custody.

In a moment of unprecedented national calamity, we ask for decisive action by the government and court to set the BK-16 at liberty to avert further tragedy. When the prison is unable to provide for the health and safety of the prisoners, the family has a right to offer such care as they deem necessary. None of the prisoners is deemed a flight risk. We acknowledge that while the Bombay High Court allowed three of the 16 arrested to be transferred to private hospitals, there is a humanitarian emergency facing all these political prisoners, whose lives are in grave danger from Covid-19.

With this letter, we call on the Indian authorities to take urgent and prompt action:
Release the BK-16 from overcrowded and unsafe prisons immediately.
Allow them to be cared for by their kin.
Show compassion and responsibility in order to avoid catastrophic consequences.
Ensure them their constitutional right to live and die in dignity.

Signatories

José Antonio Guevara-Bermúdez, Former President of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Olga Tokarczuk, Polish writer, Nobel Prize for Literature 2018
Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, Nobel Prize for Literature 1986
Margrete Auken, Member of the European Parliament
Idoia Villanueva, Member of the European Parliament
Alviina Alametsä, Member of the European Parliament
Lord Harries of Pentregarth, Member of the House of Lords, UK
Caroline Lucas, Member of Parliament, UK
Apsana Begum, Member of Parliament, UK
Clive Lewis, Member of Parliament, UK
Mick Barry, TD, Member of the Irish Parliament
Michel Brandt, Member of the German Bundestag
Eva-Maria Schreiber, Member of the German Bundestag
Heike Hänsel, Member of the German Bundestag and Vice-President of Left Parliamentary Group, Germany
Christine Buchholz, Member of the German Bundestag and deputy member of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid
Mattea Meyer, Member of the Swiss Parliament
Cédric Wermuth, Member of the Swiss Parliament
Fabian Molina, Member of the Swiss Parliament
Tamara Funiciello, Member of the Swiss Parliament
Pierre Yves-Maillard, Member of Swiss Parliament, President of the Swiss Trade Union Federation
Katharina Prelicz-Huber, Member of Swiss Parliament, President of the Swiss trade union VPOD-SSP
(Rt Revd Dr) Rowan Williams FBA, Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Former Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Revd Ted Penton, SJ, Secretary of Justice and Ecology, Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States
Vania Alleva, President of the Swiss trade union Unia
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University, USA
James Silk, Binger Clinical Professor of Human Rights, Yale Law School, USA
Gyan Prakash, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton University, USA
Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley, USA
Signe Kjelstrup, Principle Investigator, Center of Excellence, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
Arjun Appadurai, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, USA
Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford, UK
Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor, City University of New York, USA
Gyanendra Pandey, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, and Director, Interdisciplinary Workshop on Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Emory University, USA
Victor Wallis, Professor, Berklee College of Music, USA
Michael Morris, Chavkin-Chang Professor of Leadership Management, Columbia University, USA
Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, Brown University, USA
Ash Amin, Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK
Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, USA
Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University, USA
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, USA
Maryse Condé, French-Guadeloupean novelist and laureate, Professor Emerita, Columbia University, USA
Paula M. L. Moya, Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor of the Humanities, Stanford University, USA
Ueli Maeder, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Former Dean at the University of Basel, Germany
Joshua Castellino, Executive Director, Minority Rights International and Professor of Law, Middlesex University, London
Wolfgang Kaleck, Lawyer and Author, Berlin, Germany
Alan Rusbridger, Former Editor-in-Chief, the Guardian UK and board member, Committee to Protect Journalists
Naomi Klein, Journalist, Author, Filmmaker, Activist, and Gloria Steinem Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies, Rutgers University, USA
Vince Warren, Lawyer, New York, USA
Jennifer Robinson, Barrister, UK
Alejandra Anchieta, Founder and Executive Director, ProDESC, Mexico
Sarah Ahmed, British-Australian Writer and Independent Scholar
Srećko Horvat, Philosopher and Council Member, Progressive International
Sir Anish Kapoor, Artist, UK
Ilija Trojanow, Bulgarian-German Writer
Amit Chaudhuri, Novelist, Essayist, and Musician
Shahidul Alam, Photographer, Writer, Curator and Human Rights Activist
Ahdaf Soueif, Novelist, Political and Cultural Commentator

Endorsing organizations

InSAF India (International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India)
India Civil Watch International (ICWI)
The Sikh Press Association
PEN Canada
English PEN
PEN International
American Sociological Association
Hindus for Human Rights
Global Secular Hindu Forum
Solifonds Switzerland
American Anthropological Association
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies