Constitutional and Civil Liberties Violations in Kashmir

Speaker 1: Mirza Saaib Bég is a Kashmiri lawyer, currently based in London. He is a graduate of NALSAR University of Law, India. He has worked with parliamentarians, judges and activists on political, economic and legal issues of Kashmir. In order to create dialogue and awareness on one of the world's oldest conflicts, he regularly contributes through seminars and writing aimed at dialogue on legal and political issues of Kashmir.

Abstract: Beg will give a brief overview of the legal and political background to Kashmir. The session will touch upon the the civilian uprisings, political flashpoints, the colonial nature of Indian narrative on Kashmir and the structure of relationship between a Kashmiri and an Indian. 

Speaker 2: Gautam Bhatia is a DPhil candidate in law at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford, he practiced law for four years in India.

Abstract: Bhatia will focus on the Indian government's recent alterations to the constitutional status of the state of Jammu & Kashmir, and the issues surrounding it. In particular, Bhatia will discuss issues of federalism arising out of constitutional alterations to a federal unit while that unit's own elected government had been temporarily dissolved; of the freedom of speech and expression, flowing form the government's enforced communications lock-down upon the state; and issues of personal liberty, arising out of the detention of political leaders and other prominent Kashmiri figures. 

Blogger: Mihika Poddar is currently reading for the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) at Oxford University. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), India. Her research interests include human rights and equality law.