UN rights official visits Srinagar
By IANSWednesday, January 19, 2011
SRINAGAR - The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, Margaret Sekaggya, arrived here Wednesday on a two-day visit “to assess the human rights situation in Kashmir valley,” according to official sources.
This is the first visit of the UN special rapporteur to the violence-hit Kashmir.
UN special rapporteurs are individuals working on behalf of the UN within the scope of “special procedures” mechanisms who bear a specific mandate from the Commission of Human Rights (UNCHR) and assumed by the Human Rights Council.
Immediately after her arrival, Sekaggya met members of the local society, human rights activists and families of some victims at a local hotel.
Members of the local bar association also met the senior UN official and briefed her about the human rights situation in the state.
Senior state government officers are also scheduled to meet the official before she returns to New Delhi.
The visit follows over five-month long deadly summer unrest in the Valley that has claimed 110 lives and left hundreds others wounded in clashes.
