Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch stated that, “The BJP government’s discriminatory and divisive policies have led to increased violence against minorities, creating a pervasive environment of fear and a chilling effect on government critics. Instead of holding those responsible for abuses to account, the authorities chose to punish the victims, and persecuted anyone who questioned these actions.”

The report further details that in the year 2023 India’s aspirations for a rights-respecting democracy crumbled under the weight of its persistently discriminatory policies. It argues that the BJP-led government has a Hindu nationalist agenda and has ended up marginalising religious and other minorities and details how the government has also resorted to arresting activists, journalists, and political opponents on dubious charges, including terrorism.

The report details how in India, authorities have targeted journalists, activists, and critics through raids, accusations of financial irregularities, and exploitation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act governing foreign funding of NGOs. The report highlights the BBC raid by authorities. In February 2023, tax officials raided BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, many have argued that this raid was done in retaliation for a documentary criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to ensure to keep Muslims safe in India. The government had previously blocked the documentary in India in January of the same year.

The report notes the communal violence which erupted in Haryana state in July during a Shobha Yatra. The response of the government to the violence, including violence against Muslims, was unlawfully demolishing hundreds of Muslim properties and detaining numerous Muslims. The report details how these events prompted the Punjab and Haryana High Court to question whether the state government was engaged in ‘ethnic cleansing.’

The violence ethnic conflict which has displaces over 60,000 people in Manipur was detailed in the report. The violent clashes between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki Zo communities in May resulted in over 200 deaths and hundreds of homes and churches destroyed. The report argues that the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh of the BJP worsened existing tensions by accusing the Kuki-Zo community of drug trafficking, and offering refuge to Myanmar refugees. By September, over a dozen United Nations experts expressed concerns about the government’s sluggish and inadequate response to the ongoing violence in Manipur.

The report has also shed light on the allegations against BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh, who faces accusations of sexual abuse from at least six women wrestlers. He is accused for allegedly abusing these women for over a decade, especially during his tenure as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

The report has criticised US-President Joe Biden for having ‘little appetite’ for holding countries that have strategic interests with the US to account for human rights violations. The report also further details how India’ PM Modi, who the report criticises for increasing freedom violations, has been received without criticism by his European and other Western counterparts. Under PM Modi, it argues, India’s democracy has slid to autocracy and that authorities have actively targeted minorities, intensified repression, and systematically dismantled independent institutions, including central investigative agencies. Throughout the year, the report has argued that Indian authorities have curtailed freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and other fundamental rights, and thus has displayed disregard for democracy and human rights.

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) on June 28, 2022 demanded that Indian authorities immediately release human rights activist Teesta Setalvad, drop all charges against her, and stop their relentless attacks against activists.

The non-profit organisation condemned the Indian government for charging Setalvad and two former senior police officers (turned whistle-blowers) for criminal conspiracy and forgery while pursuing accountability for the 2002 Gujarat riots. Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested on June 25. The journalist is further accused of filing false charges and fabricating false evidence with an intent to convict a person of a capital offense.

“These arrests are clearly reprisals for pursuing justice for Gujarat riot victims and attempting to hold those who were in power accountable. No one can deny that the violence occurred, or that there needs to be justice, and yet the authorities have been pursuing criminal charges against Setalvad for years now in an attempt to silence her,” said HRW South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly.

60-year-old Setalvad is well-known for her work in pursuing justice for the victims and survivors of the 2002 Gujarat violence. The activist sought an investigation into the role of senior state government and police officials in allowing the carnage to continue unabated leading to the massacre of over 1,000 people. Now, in wake of observations by the Supreme Court in the judgment dismissing the petition, the police have filed charges against former police officers Sanjiv Bhatt and R.B. Sreekumar, who spoke out about complicity by officials during the riots. While Sreekumar was arrested in 2022, Bhatt was convicted of murder in 2019 in an allegedly politically-motivated case dating back 30 years.

Based on submissions by activists including Setalvad, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had strongly condemned the Gujarat government’s failure to deliver justice. The Supreme Court had also ordered new investigations, and directed the government to provide protection to witnesses and victims.

Regarding all this Ganguly said, “It was only because of efforts of activists like Setalvad who worked with victims and witnesses, that justice has been possible for mass violence in Gujarat. Setalvad’s arrest is part of escalating attacks on civil society and human rights activists in India, meant to send a chilling message to all who dare to seek accountability.”

A 2002 Human Rights Watch report on the riots had found that Gujarat authorities had failed to take adequate steps to end the violence, and interfered in investigations by targeting activists. In 2005, the US government denied Modi a diplomatic visa and revoked his existing 10-year business or tourist visa, citing violations of religious freedom.

But the Supreme Court, on June 24, dismissed the Zakia Jafri case where the widow of MP Ehsan Jafri challenged the SIT report that absolved top state government and police officials of role in the riots. Further, the judgement stated that the plea was filed “to keep the pot boiling … for ulterior design”. The court said that “all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law.” A day later, Home Affairs MinisterAmit Shah lashed out at Setalvad by saying that she and her organisation had “given baseless information about the riots to the police.”

While being taken away by the police on Saturday, Setalvad submitted a handwritten complaint to the Santacruz Police Station, saying, “I seriously fear for my life given the animosity of the Gujarat state police.”

HRW notes that the Gujarat authorities have been hounding Setalvad for nearly two decades, filing a slew of false charges (many remain pending) and misusing the criminal justice system. At times like in 2004, the Supreme Court rejected an allegation that she coerced a witness to give false evidence. Similarly, in February 2012, the Supreme Court looked into a case that accused her of illegally exhuming bodies of riot victims and it was a “100 percent spurious case to victimize” her and that such a case “does no credit to the state of Gujarat in any way.”

The HRW said it documented the stalled efforts to investigate and prosecute cases of riots in Gujarat and found that activists and lawyers involved were harassed and intimidated.

“It has taken repeated interventions by the Supreme Court following appeals by activists and victims’ families to order re-investigations, oversee independent inquiries in some cases, or shift trials out of Gujarat to ensure progress toward justice. Over 100 people have been convicted in these cases, although many have been released pending appeal,” said the HRW.

Aside from the HRW, Setalvad’s arrest has prompted mass protest from political parties, media associations, and human rights groups alike. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor expressed deep concern over the arrest and said, “Defending human rights is not a crime. I call for her release and an end to persecution by the Indian state.”

Similarly, the Working Group of Human Rights in India and the United Nations (WGHR), Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) and the International Union of Left Publishers also voiced solidarity with the veteran activist. This is aside from the overwhelming protests across India in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ranchi, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Lucknow, Allahabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dhulia, Raipur and many other cities. Setalvad and Sreekumar will be brought before the magistrate for hearing on July 2.

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Human Rights Watch (HRW), an independent group that investigates and reports on abuses happening across the world, has released a report titled World Report 2021: Rights Trends in India. The report highlights the allegations of multiple human rights violations under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of India. According to the report, the current political regime has been noted to have “increasingly harassed, arrested, and prosecuted rights defenders, activists, journalists, students, academics, and others critical of the government or its policies.”

It particulary highlights that the “harsh and discriminatory restrictions on Muslim-majority areas in Jammu and Kashmir since revoking the state’s constitutional status in August 2019”. It has also put on record the attacks against minorities, especially Muslims, across the country. The HRW has alleged that the “authorities failed to take action against BJP leaders who vilified Muslims and BJP supporters who engaged in violence”.

It detailed the violations in Jammu and Kashmir, including detentions under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which permits detention without trial for up to two years. It also notes the new media policy in Jammu and Kashmir that empowers the authorities to decide what is “fake news, plagiarism and unethical or anti-national activities” and to take punitive action against media outlets, journalists, and editors. According to HRW, the policy contains “vague and overbroad provisions that are open to abuse and could unnecessarily restrict and penalize legally protected speech”. 

HRW has also brought forth the role of police and security forces during the Covid-19 lockdown. It noted that “in several states, police beat people who violated the lockdown, including those trying to get essential supplies” citing examples from West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh police’s actions on citizens they suspected of “breaking the lockdown.” It noted that until October 2020, the National Human Rights Commission reported 77 deaths in police custody, 1,338 deaths in judicial custody, and 62 alleged extrajudicial killings.

HRW dedicated a section in its report on: Dalits, tribal groups, and religious minorities. The section led with the February 2020 communal riots of North East Delhi. “Violence broke out soon after a local BJP politician, Kapil Mishra, demanded that the police clear the roads of protesters. Tensions had been building for weeks, with BJP leaders openly advocating violence against the protesters, whom some called “traitors” to be shot. Witness accounts and video evidence showed police complicity in the violence,” stated HRW quoting findings from the July 2020 report by the Delhi Minorities Commission that stated the violence in Delhi was “planned and targeted,” said the report that also found that the police were filing cases against Muslim victims for the violence, but not taking action against the BJP leaders who incited it.

It also cited the instances from Uttar Pradesh, where there are allegations of cow slaughter to target Muslims, “By August, the Uttar Pradesh government had arrested 4,000 people over allegations of cow slaughter under the law preventing it, and also used the draconian National Security Act against 76 people accused of cow slaughter.” It also noted that the Muslim community was villified and accused of spreading Covid-19 and that “pro-government media had screamed “CoronaJihad” and social media platforms were “flooded by calls for social and economic boycotts of Muslims.” 

The report quoted 2019 government data, stating crimes against Dalits had “increased by 7 percent,” detailing attacks on Dalits in Odisha, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Gujarat etc. One of the most crucial remarks have been made by the HRW on the clampdown on dissent voiced by human rights defenders, and activists who have subsequently been blamed and accused in connection with the communal violence in February in Delhi as well as caste-based violence in Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra that took place in January 2018. “Police investigations in these cases were biased and aimed at silencing dissent and deterring future protests against government policies,” alleged HRW. It added that journalists too have faced “criminal cases, arrest, threat, or even physical assault by mobs or police.” 

The complete report may be read here: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/india

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To get anyone’s attention in this world of information overload and 24-hour news cycles, sometimes you need to get a little dramatic. Indeed, human rights organizations are finding that highly visual (and often shocking) campaigns are more likely to get the public’s attention than more conventional efforts. And this is exactly what Human Rights Watch recently did to shine a spotlight on the issue of violence against women—and specifically domestic violence—in Morocco.

In this HRW video, Moroccan comedian and feminist activist Mounia Magueri plays the role of a domestic violence survivor, an abusive husband, a police officer, and a prosecutor and highlights the problem of domestic violence from different angles.

In 2009-10 a national survey found that 62.8% of women aged 18 to 65 had experienced some form of physical, psychological, sexual or economic violence. Because Morocco is a highly devout country, the debate amongst human rights elites on women’s rights has often been highly polarized, pitting religious against secular, even though polls suggest that among ordinary people the issue is far more nuanced. This is a promising sign, because as many rights activists know, getting public buy-in on a controversial issue is often all about the framing.

While Morocco has a massive civil society sector with lots of women’s rights organizations, the laws in Morocco do not provide enough guidance for justice and law enforcement officials to adequately protect women. As a result, women have become increasingly frustrated with attempts to seek protection and support, much less justice.

Women have become increasingly frustrated with attempts to seek protection and support, much less justice. To give credit, the Moroccan government has taken some steps on the issue, like setting up committees to raise awareness and reestablishing a national observatory on violence against women. On the other hand, the government has been debating several new bills on violence against women for three years now, with frustratingly little progress. While Morocco has a massive civil society sector with lots of women’s rights organizations, the laws in Morocco do not provide enough guidance for justice and law enforcement officials to adequately protect women. As a result, women have become increasingly frustrated with attempts to seek protection and support, much less justice. In addition, many women and girls can’t even access their own identification papers in order to seek divorce or custody of their children.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the Moroccan government has become increasingly hostile to CSOs and especially to major human rights organizations, both domestic and international. In fact, according to Rothna Begum, the author of Human Rights Watch’s most recent report on violence against women in Morocco, the government has recently stated that they do not want her organization to conduct research in the country at all. She states that the government’s recent responses indicate an overall strategy of cutting off anyone who is critical of their actions or policies, citing the government’s recent suspension of contact with the European Union over the disputed territory of Western Sahara as just one recent example.

Begum notes that the new draft law—accepted on March 17 and now going to parliament—is still highly problematic as, among other issues, it lacks a definition of domestic violence and has made it very difficult for women to get emergency protection orders (e.g., restraining orders) unless they pursue a criminal prosecution, or their abuser is convicted. Women often choose to drop criminal cases for a whole host of reasons, including pressure from families, and a conviction on domestic violence is rare. International standards state that emergency protection orders should not be linked to pursuing a criminal prosecution or a divorce.  
 
Indeed, domestic violence in particular is full of cultural complexities and debates around the public and private realms. This has necessitated creative approaches to spark dialogue and encourage change. One such approach is a recent collaboration with activist and comedienne, Mounia Magueri, who created a video on violence against women in Morocco after HRW approached her on the issue.

Flickr/UN women: A 2009-10 national survey found that 62.8% of Moroccan women aged 18 to 65 had experienced some form of physical, psychological, sexual or economic violence.

“We saw her videos … and she had kind of a feminist monologue. She had over a million views, and she spoke very true of what was happening in Morocco… so we approached her to do a sketch on domestic violence,” Begum says. The result? Over 30,000 views (combining the Arabic, French and English versions) and 12 separate articles in the Moroccan press. In the three weeks leading up to International Women’s Day, the Arabic hashtag الحقاوي_عطيني_حقي# (“Hakkaoui: Give me my rights”) was directed at the Moroccan Minister of Women and Family, Bassima Hakkaoui, and attached to different cases released by Human Rights Watch. “It’s not [just] an issue of why domestic violence is bad,” Begum noted. “But actually how the authorities are failing to address the problem.”

Keeping pressure on the government with letters, tweets, videos and witness stories, the Moroccan media began to consistently cover their efforts. Because HRW was writing about (and to) the ministers, the media was going directly to those ministers to get their reactions. This helped reveal comments and attitudes of the ministers responsible for drafting the violence against women law. One of the revelations was that the justice minister, Mustafa Ramid, said he sees domestic violence—and marital rape in particular—as too private to be adjudicated in a public setting. However, at least in part due to the heightened social media pressure, the government announced that they would discuss the draft law on March 17, where it was then adopted.

“We don’t think it’s as good as it could be,” says Begum. “There are major gaps: it doesn’t set out the responsibilities [for police, prosecutors and judges] such as requiring the police to take reports of domestic violence, conduct follow-up investigation, and even enter homes.  Often the police send women away when they report to them and they do not feel like they have authority to go into homes. That’s a serious issue.”

Nonetheless, the creative use of social media does seems to have had an impact, and Begum points to work being done in Lebanon as further evidence of film, photography and social media to get government attention on rights. In particular, a recent video featuring a 12-year-old bride with a man old enough to be her grandfather went viral, inspiring international outrage and garnering much needed attention on this particular issue. You can see in the video that passersby get quite upset at what they are seeing, and it is these types of campaigns that bring issues to life and make people literally “see” the problem. The trick, of course, is keeping this attention sustained in order to put enough pressure on governments to enact real change.

“There is still lots to be done in terms of creative usage,” Begum says hopefully. “The revised law as it currently stands won’t do a huge amount for women…. What we want is real change, and that means a strong domestic violence law.”

This article was first published on Open Democracy.
 
 

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“The government of India should demonstrate its commitment to protecting the rights of minorities by implementing the following recommendations at the earliest possible date. In compliance with the Indian constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it should ensure that all citizens may equally enjoy freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, propagate, and adopt religion. In particular, it should commit to taking steps to prevent further violence and prosecute both state and private actors responsible for attacks on religious minorities.

Ø Recommendations to the Government of India provide adequate police protection to Christians and other minority communities in violence-affected areas and increase the number of police stations and outposts in each district.Require that police register all cases of communal attacks, regardless of the religious background of the complainant, and enforce this regulation through frequent reviews of registers by a magistrate or other competent judicial authority and the establishment of a civilian review board mandated to investigate complaints. Police who violate the regulation should be dismissed.Investigate and prosecute state officials complicit in attacks onminorities. Police who are found to be complicit should be dismissed.End impunity for past campaigns of violence against minorities. That is, prosecute and punish all those found responsible for murder, rape, assault, and destruction of property during the post–Ayodhya violence of December 1992 and January 1993. Police responsible for excessive use of force should be prosecuted; those who having the power and duty to stop the violence but did not intervene should be punished accordingly. Victims and family members should be paid compensation.Implement the recommendations made by the National Commission for Minorities in its reports on attacks on Christians in various states.Make public the recommendations of the Wadhwa

Commission and prosecute those found responsible for the 1999 attacks in Orissa.Ensure speedy review and publication of findings by commissions of inquiry appointed by the state to investigate abuses against minorities.Strengthen the capacity of the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Minorities, and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to operate branch offices in all states with enough financial resources and powers to initiate Prosecution of cases.

Ø Prohibit surveys by district administrations to assess the activities and whereabouts of minority community members and leaders.Launch a nationwide public awareness campaign regarding the dangers of communal violence. This campaign should explain in simple terms what actions are legally prohibited, what recourse is available to minorities, and what the procedures are for filing a First Information Report (FIR: the first report, recorded by the police, of a crime). It should also include a program of public service announcements in all states aimed at sensitizing the population against any form of religious extremism and creating awareness of minority rights.Implement the recommendations made by the U.N. special rapporteur on the question of religious intolerance in his report on his December 1996 visit to India. In particular, the following recommendations should be implemented:

1. Increase awareness of the existence and dangers of extremism because, despite the fact that it is confined to a minority, its influence on the masses through political parties, places of worship, schools and even seats of power, could well destroy community and religious harmony in India.

2. The Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951, should be scrupulously implemented and that in addition it should be speedily supplemented by a new act debarring political parties from the post-election use of religion for political ends.

3. Places of worship should be used exclusively for religious, and not political, purposes.

4. Education can play a vital role in preventing intolerance, discrimination, hate and violence (including violence motivated by extremism) by creating and disseminating a culture of tolerance among the masses and the most disadvantaged segments of the population. It can make a decisive contribution to the assimilation of values based on human rights by the use of school curricula and textbooks reflecting principles of tolerance and non-discrimination.

Recommendations to the International CommunityIndia’s donors and trading partners should pressure the Indian government to implement the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission on the 1992–1993 Bombay riots, and the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities on attacks against Christians.

Archived from Communalism Combat, January 2000. Year 7  No, 55,  Human Rights 3

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