ICC Note:

India’s Supreme Court has ordered that additional compensation be given to the victims of the 2008 anti-Christian riots that swept across India’s Odisha state. The riots that happened over the months of August – October in 2008 remain the worst instance of anti-Christian violence in India’s history. In August, the 8th anniversary of the riots that displaced as many as 50,000 will be remembered. A report recently released by the Indian government has shown that the violence that targeted Christians in Odisha’s Kandhamal District amounted to a crime against humanity which led to the court ordering the additional compensation. 

8/2/2016 India (India Live Today) – The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered additional compensation to the victims of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district in Odisha, reports IANS.

The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit ordered additional compensation, holding that what was paid to the victims of the violence was not adequate.

The court verdict pronounced by Justice Lalit came on a petition by Archbishop Rachel Cheenath.

A report of the National People’s Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of ‘torture’ under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

According to the tribunal, headed by Justice A P Shah, communal forces used religious conversions as an issue for political mobilization and incited horrific forms of violence and discrimination against tribals and Dalit Christians.

The 12-member jury relied on the testimonies of 45 victims, survivors and their representatives.

The report, a copy of which is in rediff.com‘s possession, states that the targeted violence against tribals and Dalit Christian community in Orissa violates the fundamental right to life, liberty and equality guaranteed by the Constitution, and affirmed by the ICCPR, ICESCR, CERD and other international covenants.

The report further says, ‘The 2008 attacks in Kandhamal were widespread, and were executed with substantial planning and preparation.  The violence meets all the elements of ‘crimes against humanity’ as defined in applicable international law. Christians who refused to abandon their faith and convert to Hinduism were brutally killed or injured.”

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