Axis Bank Building 3rd Floor, Paona Bazar
Imphal 795001

+91-385-2442165

manipur@hrln.org

Meihoubam Rakesh

The Manipur Unit at Imphal has been in formal existence since 2004 but the work had started much before when a three-member Indian People’s Enquiry Committee organised by HRLN and headed by Justice H Suresh had traveled to various areas of Manipur in October 2000 where it met a number of victims, their relatives and friends, to hear their tales of injustice – cases of rape, violence, killings and disappearances under Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA). Irom Chanu Sharmila -- a Gandhian activist who has been on a fast unto death since last eight years against the AFSPA – was part of the process of the enquiry committee as a volunteer. This was the first political participation and initiation for Sharmila, who has over the years come to symbolise a protracted fight against brutal atrocities by the State in the northeast.

The unit has been addressing issues, which have arisen from the armed conflict that has subsumed the state for the last four decades. During this long journey of

HRLN’s engagements in Manipur, we have organised people’s tribunals in Delhi and Manipur for victims to narrate their tales in order to highlight the State brutalities through AFSPA, a legislation that gives draconian and unaccounted powers to the security forces who have often used these against innocent civilians.

Since then the fight for justice of these victims has been the core engagement for the organisation though the our members have also worked on all other rights issues -- child rights, HIV/AIDS and health, right to food, environment, refugees and women.

HRLN Manipur has been recognised as the main organisation in the state which provides free legal aid to victims of army/police atrocities, torture, disappearances, rape and violence on civilians. This is an important distinction given the scores of people who have been adversely affected by the State violence.