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Umar Khalid’s incarceration: USCIRF Commissioner expresses concern over use of anti-terrorism laws to silence activists

sabrang — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 12:00:59 +0000

Washington, D.C. (October 19, 2023) – At a Congressional briefing hosted by several civil rights groups, on the issue of the wrongful incarceration of Indian Muslim activist Umar Khalid, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Commissioner Eric Ueland called Khalid a “staunch defender of religious minorities” who “peacefully protested… discriminatory legislation.”

Ueland demanded that the United States take seriously the extensive reports of India’s use of draconian anti-terrorism laws to silence activists from minority faith backgrounds. He further called on the State Department to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for egregious violations of religious freedoms.

This special briefing was co-sponsored by 18 American civil rights organizations including the Indian American Muslim Council, Genocide Watch, World Without Genocide, Hindus for Human Rights, International Christian Concern, Jubilee Campaign, 21Wilberforce, Dalit Solidarity Forum, New York State Council of Churches, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, India Civil Watch International, Center for Pluralism, International Commission for Dalit Rights, American Muslim Institution, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, International Society for Peace and Justice, The Humanism Project and Association of Indian Muslims of America.

Umar Khalid’s incarceration: USCIRF Commissioner expresses concern over use of anti-terrorism laws to silence activists

“We strongly urge policy recommendations that take these abuses seriously, especially the importance of the United States in its designation of India as a CPC in the coming months, and not let India off the hook from the consequences of a CPC designation with some sort of scummy waiver,” said Ueland.

Over three years ago, on September 13, 2020, Umar Khalid was charged with terrorism and arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) after Indian authorities falsely accused him of inciting communal violence following a speech he delivered during nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. The CAA has been widely criticized by Indian jurists and activists alike as a law that discriminates on the basis of religion (read Islam) and thereby excludes them from being able to receive fast-tracked Indian citizenship.

In his speech during widespread protests at the time (2019-2020), Khalid had called for nonviolent resistance against the far-right government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party BJP.

Also speaking at the briefing organised in the country’s capital was Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, the father of Umar Khalid, who stated that he was not only speaking to represent the case of his son, but to represent the cases of all India’s political prisoners.

“Those who are languishing in jail – what was their crime?” Ilyas asked. “They have spoken against a discriminatory law. [For this,] they have been charged with sedition, they have been charged with terrorism, and they are languishing in jail for the last three years under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.”

He added, “People must know what is prevailing in the country. India is the largest democracy in the world. But we are afraid of whether it will remain as a democracy or not after the 2024 election. If this government comes back, people feel that the democracy of the country will be lost.”

Indian journalist Niranjan Takle, also quoted Umar Khalid’s speech to anti-CAA protestors, saying, “If they spread hate, we will respond with love. If they thrash us with sticks, we will keep holding our national tricolor flag high.”

“What is anti-national in this speech?” he added. “What is it that is provoking violence? But based on this speech, frivolous charges were raised against [Khalid], and he has been incarcerated in jail for the last 37 months… and the Supreme Court of India is not ready to even hear the bail petitions.”

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USCIRF recommends India be designated Country of Particular Concern for third straight year!

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 10:09:16 +0000

For the third year in a row, India’s name has been recommended for inclusion in the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government agency that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) abroad; makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress; and tracks the implementation of these recommendations.

According to the 2022 report, USCIRF has recommended to the State Department that 15 countries be designated CPCs because their governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations.” These include 10 that the State Department designated as CPCs in November 2021: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—as well as five others: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam.

India had first been recommended for CPC designation in September 2020 by the US Congress-constituted federal body. However, when the State Department made its announcement of nations that were designated CPC in December 2020, India was missing from the list. In May 2021, for the second year running, the USCIRF’s annual report recommended that India be designated as a CPC.

This year’s report says, “In 2021, religious freedom conditions in India significantly worsened. During the year, the Indian government escalated its promotion and enforcement of policies—including those promoting a Hindu-nationalist agenda—that negatively affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and other religious minorities. The government continued to systemize its ideological vision of a Hindu state at both the national and state levels through the use of both existing and new laws and structural changes hostile to the country’s religious minorities.”

It further raises concerns about treatment of dissenters saying, “In 2021, the Indian government repressed critical voices— especially religious minorities and those reporting on and advocating for them—through harassment, investigation, detention, and prosecution under laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Sedition Law. The UAPA and Sedition Law have been invoked to create an increasing climate of intimidation and fear in an effort to silence anyone speaking out against the government.”

Specifically on the subject of human rights defender Father Stan Swamy who died in custody and would have been 85 today had he been alive, the report said, “Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and longtime human rights defender of Adivasis, Dalits, and other marginalized communities, was arrested on dubious UAPA charges in October 2020 and never tried. He died in custody in July 2021 despite repeated concerns raised about his health.” The report also mentions the persecution of “journalists and human rights advocates documenting religious persecution and violence, including Khurram Parvez, a prominent Muslim human rights advocate who has reported on abuses in Jammu and Kashmir.”

It also mentions the regimes strong arm tactics against NGOs by booking them under trumped up charges for violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). “Numerous groups that document religious freedom violations or aid marginalized religious communities have been forced to shut down operations in the country given the restrictions under FCRA that regulate access to and reporting on foreign funds and prohibit their receipt for any activities purportedly “detrimental to the national interest.” At the close of 2021, the licenses of nearly 6,000 organizations, including religious and humanitarian organizations such as Missionaries of Charity and Oxfam India, were not renewed under the FCRA (after an outcry, Missionaries of Charity’s license was renewed in January 2022),” says the report.

The USCIRF also took the Indian government head on for “continued enforcement of anti-conversion laws against non-Hindus,” which it says “has created a culture of impunity for nationwide campaigns of threats and violence by mobs and vigilante groups, including against Muslims and Christians accused of conversion activities.” The report says, “Anti-conversion laws have increasingly focused on interfaith relationships. Existing laws in approximately one-third of India’s 28 states limit or prohibit religious conversion.”

The USCIRF has recommended to the State Department to:

Designate India as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA);
Impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ or entities’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States; and
Advance human rights of all religious communities in India and promote religious freedom, dignity, and interfaith dialogue through bilateral and multilateral forums and agreements, such as the ministerial of the Quadrilateral.

It has also recommended that the U.S. Congress should “Raise religious freedom issues in the U.S.-India bilateral relationship and highlight concerns through hearings, briefings, letters, and congressional delegations.”

The entire report, with an India specific section on page 20-21, may be read here:

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Fr Stan Swamy, Khurram Parvez, Siddique Kappan on USCIRF’s Freedom of Religion or Belief victims list

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 10:24:37 +0000

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has listed Human Rights Martyr Fr Stan Swamy, human rights defender Khurram Parvez, journalist Siddique Kappan as Freedom of Religion or Belief victims. The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyse and report on religious freedom. It has listed 1309 victims from across the world on its Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Victims List.

The list is a detailed database of persons who have been imprisoned or detained in a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). According to USCIRF, a CPC is one that has either engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom. India has been recommended to the US State Department to be designated as a “country of particular concern” or CPC, for alleged religious freedom violations last year as well. On the list were Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as CPC, along with India. These were named after USCIRF’s 2020 assessment, which was timed in anticipation of the State Department’s announcement of the CPC and Special Watch List (SWL) designations. The USCIRF had released an extensive factsheet detailing violations specified under the International Religious Freedom Act that “if perpetrated or tolerated by a foreign government, should cause the state department to designate the country as a CPC or place it on the SWL.”

India had been recommended for CPC designation in September 2020 as well by the US Congress-constituted federal body. However, when the State Department made its announcement of nations that were designated CPC in December 2020, India was missing from the list. In May this year, for the second year running, the USCIRF’s annual report recommended that India be designated as a “country of particular concern” or CPC. According to the 2021 annual report, released by Gayle Manchin, who heads the organisation, while 2020 was “challenging for most nations trying to balance public health concerns alongside the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief”, it has been recommended that the state department designate “Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan,” which were already on the State Department’s 2020 list “as well as four others—India, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam,” as “countries of particular concern.”

Now the three Indians have been added to the FORB victims list with details of their arrests and the status of their case.

Kashmir-based human rights activist Khurram Parvez was arrested in November 2021 after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out searches at his residence and the office of J&K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) in Srinagar. According to reports, Parvez’s family said that they received an arrest memo (case 30/2021) in which he was named. Parvez was taken for questioning by the officials who said they were from NIA, and his phone, laptop and a few books were also seized. His arrest sparked international outrage and concern.

On December 22, 2021, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for Parvez’s release saying, “We are concerned that one month after Mr. Parvez’s arrest, he is still deprived of liberty in what appears to be a new incident of retaliation for his legitimate activities as a human rights defender and because he has spoken out about violations.”

The USCIRF stated, “Human Rights organizations allege Parvez’s arrest is motivated by his work documenting human rights violations committed by authorities in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority area.”

Siddique Kappan is a Muslim journalist who is currently held in a jail in Uttar Pradesh since his arrest in October 2020. Kappan was arrested while on his way to Hathras, a district in Uttar Pradesh, to report on the brutal rape and murder of a teenage Dalit girl. The chargesheet against Kappan attempted to paint him as a journalist with a communal agenda. It said, “These writings of Siddique Kappan, to a great extent, can be classified as communal… During riots, taking the name of a minority and talking about events related to them can incite sentiments. Responsible journalists do not do such communal reporting. Kappan only and only reports to incite Muslims.”

The USCIRF details concerns over Kappan’s health status as he has been in jail well over a year. It said, “In addition to catching COVID-19 [in prison], Kappan reportedly suffers from depression, anxiety, and poor eyesight. He has reportedly been unable to receive adequate medical care.”

The most telling is the listing of Stan Swamy who was detained on terrorism charges and died while still imprisoned. He was 83 years old and on July 5, 2021, Swamy died in state custody reportedly from cardiac arrest after he suffered complications that followed his bout of Covid-19 in May 2021.

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Will the US tag India a ‘country of particular concern’?

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 12:47:35 +0000

Image Courtesy:talentkas.com

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) pushed for the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern” or CPC, for alleged religious freedom violations, reported The Telegraph. According to the news report, the reiteration is significant as the US State Department will soon announce the CPC and Special Watch List (SWL) designations.

The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyse and report on religious freedom abroad. It has listed Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as CPC, along with India. These were named after USCIRF’s 2020 assessment, which was timed in anticipation of the State Department’s announcement of the CPC and Special Watch List (SWL) designations in about a month’s time. The USCIRF released an extensive factsheet detailing violations specified under the International Religious Freedom Act that “if perpetrated or tolerated by a foreign government, should cause the state department to designate the country as a CPC or place it on the SWL,” stated the news report.

According to the state department website, “In those cases where the secretary of state designates a CPC, Congress is notified, and where non-economic policy options designed to bring about cessation of the particularly severe violations of religious freedom have reasonably been exhausted, an economic measure generally must be imposed.”

India had been recommended for CPC designation in September 2020 as well by the US Congress-constituted federal body, However, when the State Department made its announcement of nations that were designated CPC in December 2020, India was missing from the list. In May this year, for the second year running, the USCIRF’s annual report recommended that India be designated as a “country of particular concern” or CPC. According to the 2021 annual report, released by, Gayle Manchin, who heads the organisation, while 2020 was “challenging for most nations trying to balance public health concerns alongside the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief” it has been recommended that the state department designate “Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan,” which were already on the State Department’s 2020 list “as well as four others—India, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam,” as “countries of particular concern.” According to the recommendations that the governments of these nations engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations.”

The USCIRF factsheet on India mentions that in 2020 and early 2021, the government of India continued to implement policies that impacted the religious freedom of members of India’s Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Dalit and Adivasi communities. It also mentions the “discriminatory” Citizenship (Amendment) Act, anti-conversion laws, intermarriage restrictions and anti-cow slaughter laws in various states, saying these have contributed to a “climate of hate, intolerance and fear”; the use of social media to spread hate; and the use of laws like the UAPA to “silence or restrict individuals and NGOs from reporting on and combating religious persecution, and to restrict support for religious organisations and activities”.

However, according to TT, even though many of these issues were flagged in the state department’s own report on “international religious freedom” last year, it it did not designate India a CPC “given the other aspects of the bilateral relationship, particularly geo-strategic considerations and the role Washington envisages for New Delhi in its China-centric policy.” The report notes that India usually “dismisses USCIRF recommendations and criticism, questioning its locus standi to comment on India’s internal matters” and that governments, “including that of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have denied visas to the USCIRF to visit India”.

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Mark India as “country of particular concern”: USCIRF

Mon, 17 May 2021 04:31:58 +0000

Image Courtesy:telanganatoday.com

Once again, for the second year running, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) annual report has recommended that India be designated as a “country of particular concern” or CPC. The Commision “monitors/analyzes India’s Harassment/violence against religious minorities, especially Muslims”.

According to the 2021 annual report, released by, Gayle Manchin, who heads the organisation, while 2020 was “challenging for most nations trying to balance public health concerns alongside the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief” it has been recommended that the state department designate “Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan,” which were already on the State Department’s 2020 list “as well as four others—India, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam,” as “countries of particular concern. According to the recommendations that the governments of these nations engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations.”

India had been recommended to be declared a CPC in September 2020 as well by the US Congress-constituted federal body, However, when the State Department made its announcement of nations that were designated CPC in December 2020, India was missing from the list. The countries the State Department designated as CPCs then were Burma, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, all of which, besides Nigeria, it had previously so designated. While in its Annual Report 2020, USCIRF had recommended the inclusion of India in the CPC list along with Russia, Syria and Vietnam, all of whom were also left out. According to news reports India’s Ministry of External Affairs had also highlighted the dissension from three commissioners in the 2020 annual report on the proposal about India.

India has laws restricting religious conversions

The new report mentions that in India, while the Constitution guarantees religious freedom “ten of the 28 states have laws restricting religious conversions. In February, continued protests related to the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which excludes Muslims from expedited naturalisation provisions granted to migrants of other faiths, became violent in New Delhi after counter protesters attacked demonstrators. According to reports, religiously motivated attacks resulted in the deaths of 53 persons, most of whom were Muslim, and two security officials.”

It added even when Covid-19 spread in the country, “Government and media initially attributed some of the spread of Covid-19 in the country to a conference held in New Delhi in March by the Islamic Tablighi Jamaat organisation after media reported that six of the conference’s attendees tested positive for the virus. The Ministry of Home Affairs initially claimed a majority of the country’s early Covid-19 cases were linked to that event. Some members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said conference attendees spread Covid-19 “like terrorism,” which politicians and some media outlets described as “Corona Jihad.”

The report mentioned further violations against minority communities even as the pandemic raged on in particular how “two Christians died in June after being beaten while in police custody for violating the Covid-19 curfews in Tamil Nadu. NGOs reported that nine police officers involved in the incident were charged with murder and destruction of evidence. In June, more than 200 Muslim residents of a village in Uttar Pradesh said they were leaving their homes because of intimidation by state police officials. There were reports by NGOs that the government sometimes failed to prevent or stop attacks on religious minorities. Political party leaders made inflammatory public remarks or social media posts about religious minorities.”

There was a specific reminder how allegations of cow slaughter or trade in beef, fuelled communal attacks on Muslims, especially in “Uttar Pradesh police filed charges in 1,716 cases of cow slaughter and made more than 4,000 arrests under the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act as of August. In October, the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh ruled that the state Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act “was being misused against innocent persons” and granted bail to a Muslim individual arrested under the act.

On Foreign Contributions Regulation Act

Many NGOs, including faith-based organisations, criticized amendments passed in September to the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) as “constraining civil society by reducing the amount of foreign funding that NGOs, including religious organisations, could use for administrative purposes and adding onerous oversight and certification requirements,” stated the report. It mentions how in February, the government of India “cancelled the FCRA licenses of five Christian-linked NGOs, cutting off their foreign funding. In September, the NGO Amnesty International India ceased operations in the country after the government froze its bank accounts in response to a FCRA investigation that the NGO says was motivated by its critical reporting against the government.” According to the report, the U.S. government officials discussed the “importance of religious freedom and pluralism, the value of interfaith dialogue, the Muslim community’s concerns about the CAA, and difficulties faced by faith-based and human rights-focused NGOs following the FCRA amendments and allegations that Muslims spread the Covid virus.”

Anti-CAA protests, and the aftermath

The reports highlights “religiously motivated killings, assaults, riots, discrimination, vandalism”, and recalled how in January, during anti-CAA protests in New Delhi, “an armed crowd stormed a mosque, killed the muezzin, beat the imam, scattered worshippers, and set the building on fire.” The attacks on Christians were also put on record citing Christian NGOs United Christian Forum’s violence monitor, Evangelical Fellowship of India, Persecution Relief and Alliance for Defense of Freedom’s documentation of hundreds of “instances of attacks or harassment of Christians in the country in the first half of the year, despite the widespread pandemic lockdown, including six rapes and eight murders”. Many of these incidents were reported from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha etc. It cites how the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) report that recorded that Delhi’s anti-Muslim violence was “planned and targeted,” and that “police were filing cases against Muslims for acts of violence but were not acting against Hindu leaders accused of inciting violence, including municipal-level BJP politicians.” According to the report, while “activists, NGOs, and political parties filed petitions against the CAA on the grounds that it added a religious qualification to the country’s historically secular citizenship laws. None of the more than 100 legal challenges had been heard by the Supreme Court as of the year’s end.” The report highlights the ongoing incarceration of Father Stan Swamy, Umar Khalid and other human rights activists.

The executive summary of the report may be read here.

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Concerns about targeting of minorities in India raised at US Congressional Briefing

Sat, 23 May 2020 11:30:07 +0000

Image Courtesy:uscirf.gov

On May 21, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) and International Christian Concern (ICC) co-sponsored a virtual Congressional briefing titled “USCIRF Recommendations on India – The Next Steps.”

This comes in wake of the recommendation by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) following a series of instances of targeting of minorities, especially Muslims. It was organized with the the intent to analyze the recommendations made by the USCIRF.

The briefing was chaired by IAMC and included several USCIRF Commissioners as the main speakers along with representatives from Amnesty International, IAMC, HfHR, and ICC.

Ms. Nadine Maenza, Vice-Chair of USCIRF, delivered the keynote address, with an incisive assessment of the existential crisis facing India’s democratic polity. Ms. Maenza specifically bemoaned the “#CoronaJihad” social media campaign intended to scapegoat Muslims as responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Harrison Akins, South Asia policy analyst with USCIRF, while recognizing India as an ally of the United States, noted that “members of the ruling BJP have used the symbols of Hinduism and policies aimed at their protection as weapons against minority communities in their quest to further marginalize religious minorities and shape a Hindu nation.” Mr. Akins further noted, “combined with the BJP’s inflammatory rhetoric, these coordinated actions strengthen the perception that minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, are outsiders with no legitimate place in Indian history or society and, by their mere presence, a potential threat from within to the project of making India a Hindu nation.”

Mr. Francisco Bencosme, Asia Pacific Advocacy Manager of Amnesty International USA, shared concerns expressed by other panelists and highlighted the issue of activists imprisoned for peaceful dissent. He made a special note of Ms. Safoora Zargar, a pregnant student jailed for speaking up against the draconian citizenship law recently enacted in India. Mr. Bencosme remarked that “while the world faces a global pandemic, India has decided that now is the time to attack religious freedom.”

“Persecution, vigilantism, Hindutva and Hindu radicalism and the oppression of Christians is what characterizes India now,” stated Mr. Jeff King, President of International Christian Concern (ICC). Mr. Raju Rajgopal, co-founder of Hindus For Human Rights, urged everyone to distinguish between Hinduism and Hindutva. The true concept of “Hindu Rashtra,” as Mr. Rajgopal expounded, is actually one of inclusiveness and tolerance, while the “Hindutva Rashtra” that the RSS and its affiliates are clearly striving for, is violent, authoritarian and intolerant.

In a press statement IAMC, an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos stated, “The erosion of religious freedom is apparent in the abrogation of Article 370 and the horrific violations of human rights in Kashmir, a brutal clampdown on peaceful civil dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the recent Delhi pogrom, among several other egregious instances of religious persecution.”

This only the latest in a line of actions undertaken by various international organisations and groups to condemn the persecution of minorities in India. Recently, Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide had raised several key questions about the growth of hate speech and especially the targeting of the Muslim community in wake of the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the nationwide agitation against it.

In a media statement released recently, Dieng said, “While the objective of the act, to provide protection to minority communities is commendable, it is concerning that this protection is not extended to all groups, including Muslims. This is contrary to India’s obligations under international human rights law, in particular on non-discrimination.”

Earlier, in a special communication dated May 6, four United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs have written to the government of India about their serious concerns with respect to violation of human rights that are made possible by several provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 and amendments made to it in 2019. The letter had raised concerns in relation to designation of individuals as “terrorists”, in the context of the ongoing discrimination directed at religious and other minorities, human rights defenders and political dissidents, against whom the law has been used. It urged for a review of provisions that are incompatible with India’s obligations under international human rights law.

It called the Government of India’s attention to their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The letter also raised concerns about how the definition of a ‘terrorist act’ as per UAPA differs significantly from that advanced by Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. It called the UAPA definition “overboard and ambiguous”. It also raises concerns about the definition of a “terrorist organisation” and “unlawful association”.

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Designate India as ‘Country of Particular Concern’, impose sanctions: USCIRF

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 13:28:53 +0000

Image Courtesy:telanganatoday.com

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released its Annual Report for 2020 that paints a bleak picture of how India is treating her religious minorities. The document that includes recommendations for US Policy minces no words and assigns the blame squarely on the ruling regime.

The report says, “In 2019, religious freedom conditions in India experienced a drastic turn downward, with religious minorities under increasing assault. Following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) re-election in May, the national government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national level policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims. The national government allowed violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity, and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence.”

The report sites the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as the first official enabler of a culture of discrimination by identifying it as a means to restore the citizenship of non-Muslims. It mentions how the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was recently conducted in the state of Assam left out a large number of Hindus thereby prompting the enactment of the CAA. Openly naming Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a key player, the report says, “When the statewide NRC was released in August, 1.9 million residents—both Muslims and Hindus—were excluded. Those excluded live in fear of the consequences: three United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs warned that exclusion from the NRC could result in ‘statelessness, deportation, or prolonged detention.’ Indeed, Home Minister Amit Shah referred to migrants as ‘termites’ to be eradicated. Troubled that Hindus were excluded from Assam’s NRC, he and other BJP officials advocated for the CAA as a corrective measure to protect Hindus. The CAA provides listed non-Muslim religious communities a path to restore their citizenship and avoid detention or deportation. In its wake, BJP leaders have continued to advocate for a nation-wide NRC; the citizenship of millions would be placed under question, but, with the CAA in place, Muslims alone would bear the indignities and consequences of potential statelessness.”

The report then goes on to discuss the nationwide anti-CAA protests and the subsequent attacks on the protesters and the specific targeting of Muslims, especially by Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh. It squarely blames the central government for creating “a culture of impunity for nationwide campaigns of harassment and violence against religious minorities.” Apart from the CAA, the report also points out instances such as the Babri Masjid judgment, revocation of autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, mob lynchings and the continued enforcement of cow slaughter and anti-conversion laws, as examples of government action in this regard.

Once again it held the Home Minister accountable for his actions when it came to mob lynchings saying, “In 2018, the Supreme Court urged the central and state governments to combat lynchings with stricter laws. When, by July 2019, the central government and 10 states had failed to take appropriate action, the Supreme Court again directed them to do so. Rather than comply, Home Minister Shah called existing laws sufficient and denied lynchings had increased, while the Home Ministry instructed the National Crime Records Bureau to omit lynchings from the 2019 crime data report.”

It also minced no words when it came to the anti-Muslim violence in Delhi earlier this year, saying, “In February 2020, three days of violence erupted in Delhi with mobs attacking Muslim neighborhoods. There were reports of Delhi police, operating under the Home Ministry’s authority, failing to halt attacks and even directly participating in the violence. At least 50 people were killed.”

The report also mentions how Christians have been targeted across India. It says, “Violence against Christians also increased, with at least 328 violent incidents, often under accusations of forced conversions. These attacks frequently targeted prayer services and led to the widespread shuttering or destruction of churches.”

USCIRF then goes on to recommend that the US Government not only designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), but also “impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and d officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and/ or barring their entry into the United States under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations.”

The entire report on India may be read here:

This is not the first time USCIRF has raised concerns about religious freedom in India in the recent past. In December 2019, it had sought sanctions against Amit Shah and in February 2020, it had raised concerns about the government’s failure to check the brutal and unchecked violence in Delhi.

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Minority groups, human rights organisations welcome USCIRF report on India

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 07:19:15 +0000

Image Courtesy:hindustantimes.com

After the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called out India for its “discriminatory policies, inflammatory rhetoric, tolerance for violence against minorities”, several international human rights groups, especially those working in the field of protecting rights of religious minorities, have come out in support of the report.

Hindus for Human Rights, a US-based advocacy organization dedicated to advocating for the human rights of all communities in India, US, and beyond, welcomed USCIRF’s report saying, “As an organization with strong personal roots in both India and the US, this step taken by USCIRF to place the world’s largest democracy in the company of several authoritarian regimes is particularly painful to us. However, we feel that it is an important and necessary step that is consistent with our own assessment from our ground reports from India – which also confirm rising attacks on the media and the targeting of activists critical of the government. The recent arrest of Dr. Ambedkar’s grand son-in-law Dr. Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on trumped up charges are a case in point.”

They further said, “The report is sure to elicit more than the usual push-back from the Modi government and its supporters. As one of the only Hindu-based organizations in the US ever to condemn the rising violence against India’s minorities, we sincerely hope that the government of India will refrain from ‘shooting the messenger.’ The time is now for the government to take immediate steps to condemn all religious incitement and punish those guilty of fomenting violence or subjecting the minorities to social boycotts.”

The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) welcomed the report as well. Ahsan Khan, President of IAMC said, “As a part of the Indian diaspora that only wishes well for the country of our birth, we view international criticism of India’s religious freedom record as distressing but painfully necessary, given the escalating level of persecution of minorities.” He added, “India being categorized as a top violator of religious freedoms while unfortunate, is expected and justified. We hope this report as well as recent concerns expressed by other countries, mark a turning point in the treatment of religious minorities as well as the caste oppressed in India.”

Meanwhile the Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations also released a statement saying, “The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations (FIACONA) thanks the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for recognizing the grave downward spiral of affairs in India despite India being a democratic nation.” Koshy George, President of FIACONA said, “I am worried that the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities continues even during the Coronavirus lockdown and I am very disappointed with Prime Minister Modi for not condemning such behaviour of his party cadre forcefully.”

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