Human Rights and Conflict

Abstract

Studies of past instances of mass violence have identified general categories of significant precursor trends and events, such as the crucial influence of elite incitement of ethnic tensions, economic plundering and corruption, rampant small-arms trade, denial of basic human rights, and collapse of respected constraining authority.1-5 These crises do not simply erupt without notice; informed and aware people on the ground can sense and identify sources of rising tension. The risks to local observers may be too high for them to speak out with sustained impact. In these contexts, it has become standard for human rights investigators to enter a region from the outside, conduct their own research on these early warning indicators (often interacting clandestinely with local interlocutors), and then return to relative safety before issuing reports to the international community. An influential report on the crisis in Kashmir, published in 1993 and based on three separate missions to the area, detailed extensive violations of human rights committed against civilian populations by the Indian government in its attempts to suppress a violent local insurgency fed by Pakistan.6 The information in this report attracted significant attention, putting the Indian government on notice that despite its attempts to restrict access to the region, its conduct could be subject to international observation and