Human Rights Watch to release report on J

Srinagar, Sep 11 (UNI) For the first time since the outbreak of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in the late 1980s, an international human rights organisation will release its report on the troubled state here.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) will release its new report on the human rights condition in Jammu and Kashmir titled -- ''Everybody Lives in Fear'' -- here tomorrow.

HRW Asia Director Brad Adams would be here to release the report.

HRW is a United States-based international non-governmental organisation that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.

Its headquarters are in New York City.

It was founded under the name Helsinki Watch in 1978 to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Accords. As the organisation grew, it formed other ''watch committees'' to cover other regions of the world.

In 1988, all of the committees were united under one umbrella to form HRW. One of the original founders and a president of the organisation was Robert L Bernstein. HRW was one of six international NGOs that founded the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998.

The release of the report coincides with the proposed hunger strike by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) activists, led by Chairman Yasin Malik, here in protest against the alleged increase in human rights violations in the Valley in recent past.

According to a statement by the outfit here, the hunger strike would be observed simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and other places across the world.

The strike was earlier scheduled to be held here on September 7, but had to be postponed due to bad weather and the flood situation in the Valley.

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