Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), a human rights organisation active in Assam was founded on 2 November 1991, as a response to brutal state repression and army operations against the political movement for self-determination in the state. The organisation was founded by progressive journalists, lawyers, grassroot activists, and other conscious citizens. Due to the heightened acts of violence perpetrated by the state and non-state actors who were tacitly used in counterinsurgency operations, MASS members had to organise various activities to highlight cases of human rights violations. MASS undertook many fact finding missions following incidents of extra judicial executions, torture, illegal detention, violence against women, and overall supression of basic human rights enshrined in international and national laws. Additionally, MASS worked with like-minded human rights, civil, and democratic rights organisations across the state, and larger South Asian region, in order to document, archive, and publicise the repressive, non-democratic aspects of governance, especially in Assam, and also in the wider South Asian context.
MASS published various reports and documents, as well as facilitated legal support for victims and survivors of state violence. This work (and archive) is available in both English and Assamese.
Part two: This is for the sections where Manab Adhikar (Assamese version of Voice of MASS) volumes will be uploaded:
Manab Adhikar, is the mouthpiece of Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), a human rights organisation active in Assam. This issue contains basic information and essays pertaining to human rights violations in Assam.
#Assam
#human rights
#Army atrocities
#police excesses
#extra-judicial executions
#torture
#violence against women
#State repression
#illegal detention