The inaugural Russell Tribunal on Kashmir was held in Sarajevo on December 17-19, 2021. The organizers of the event included Kashmir Civitas, a Canadian-registered NGO in partnership with World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (Nottingham, UK), the Permanent People's Tribunal of Bologna, Italy, Nahla (Center for Education and Research), the Center for Advanced Study in Sarajevo, the International University of Sarajevo (IUS) and Aljazeera Balkans.
The tribunal highlighted the grave issue of genocide, settler-colonialism, crimes against humanity and nuclear threat emerging in disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Focus was placed on raising awareness on the settler-colonialism, human rights violations, atrocities and political oppressions that took place in Kashmir reaffirming the primacy of the international law as the basis for solving the Kashmir conflict. Moreover, it also underlined the responsibility of the international community to prevent ongoing crimes against humanity and a potential for the genocide to take place again.
The organizational structure of the Russell Tribunal on Kashmir consisted of judges, prosecutors/moderators, specialists/academics and witnesses who were tasked with listening to the proceedings and finalizing a report that will be distributed to UN agencies, the EU Parliament and other global bodies and governments.
