The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) has sought formal legal representation for women eyewitnesses and survivors of the 2002 Gujarat carnage.

In a report to the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee last week, the CJP said they were being forced to depose in trial courts in a hostile environment.

Victims of gender violence do not have women lawyers to protect them from further violation of their basic rights, it said.

Releasing here on Tuesday copies of “Survivors Citizens for Justice and Peace Report 2010,'' submitted to the CEDAW, Teesta Setalvad, secretary, CJP, said there was an urgent need to intervene in the ongoing justice process that involved 97 women eye-witnesses and survivors in nine critical trials.

She said the CJP had repeatedly petitioned the trial courts and the Supreme Court for ensuring formal legal representation to the victims but so far “the matter lies in appeal.''

She said witnesses had been brutalised and forced into “habitats of exclusion” because of their decision to pursue justice.

No compensation

Ms. Setalvad said no compensation had been paid by the State to the women victims.

“Nineteen of the State's 25 districts were affected in a well-organised and state-sponsored frenzy that took an estimated 2,500 lives. There was widespread displacement due to the targeted violence and the Internally Displaced Persons are now forced to live on non-regularised land and in temporary structures in relief camps. There is a constant fear and threat of further eviction because of overnight demolition by municipal bodies,'' the report said.

Releasing the report that contains details of the witnesses and their experiences during deposition, Brinda Karat, CPI (M) Member of Parliament, said it should be the basis of the Communal Violence Bill now being finalised.

Activist Aruna Roy said campaigns like this one helped in building public opinion and were partly responsible for the arrest of the former Gujarat Minister, Amit Shah.