Dr Zia Shoukat Mughal

Dr Mughal is 34 years of age and lives in Doda district of the Jammu and Kashmir Provinces, India. He is a general practitioner, and has completed some human rights training, one course of which was conducted by Amnesty International. Dr Mughal works in treating cases of physical and mental torture reported to him, and in gathering information about human rights abuses and submitting the cases to various human rights organisations both at the regional and international level. He has participated in seminars conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and has occasionally presented on the serious and prevailing human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He is also involved in supporting Amnesty International calls for individual campaigning for the improvement of the human rights situation around the world. Dr Mughal is finding that his lack of adequate and correct knowledge of Human Rights standards and issues, including documentation procedures, is a huge hurdle in his being able to effectively report cases and advocate for human rights. He hopes that the training will arm him with the necessary skills for increasing human rights awareness in his region amongst the communities he serves, and enabling him to effectively report cases of human rights violations according to accepted standardized procedures.