INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD

Abstract: This article presents a comprehensive socio-legal analysis of the role of Human Rights Non-Governmental Organisations (HRNGOs) in conflict-affected regions, with a particular focus on Manipur. It advances the central claim that under conditions of militarised governance and legal exceptionalism, HRNGOs operate as indispensable juridical intermediaries between civilian suffering and constitutional accountability. Through systematic documentation, evidentiary reconstruction, strategic litigation, and public advocacy, these organisations translate dispersed experiences of violence into legally intelligible claims capable of activating judicial oversight. The article demonstrates that Indian constitutional courts, most notably the Supreme Court, have relied on NGO-generated archives to interrogate the entrenched impunity sustained under security legislation, such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

At the same time, the study critically interrogates the paradox of rights protection in securitised democracies. While constitutional doctrine affirms the non-derogability of the right to life, the state increasingly deploys law itself as an instrument of repression through criminalisation, financial regulation, and surveillance of rights-claiming actors. This “juridification of repression” exposes a structural disjunction between normative constitutionalism and lived legality in conflict zones. The article concludes that the rule of law in such contexts cannot be understood solely as an institutional project but must be reconceptualised as a dynamic, contested practice sustained through civic resistance, evidentiary labour, and sustained engagement with constitutional norms.