US diaspora groups urge diplomats: ask India tough questions at UN human rights meet

By Our Representative
As part of minority rights coalition, a delegation from two US-based diaspora non-pofits, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), which recently visited Geneva last month, has urge United Nations agencies and officials, as well as dozens of Western countries, to "hold no punches" in asking India tough questions at the 41st session of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India’s human rights, scheduled in November.
Under the aegis of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the UPR process allows a review of the human rights situation in all 193 UN Member States once every five years.
IAMC’s Safa Ahmed and HfHR’s Ria Chakrabarty met with United Nations staffers and country representatives at the UN Office in Geneva to highlight India’s egregious violations of human rights and religious freedom under Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Along with the coalition partners from the US, India, and Europe, Ahmed and Chakrabarty met with representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, as well as staffers of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
They also met with Human Rights Officers from the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including the Special Procedures Branch, the Civic Space Unit, and an OHCHR Asia Specialist.
In each of the meetings, the delegation stressed the gravity of the situation faced by religious minorities in India, particularly Muslims. They highlighted the "exponential rise" in anti-Muslim hate speech and violence, cow-related lynchings of Muslims, the passage of laws that "discriminate" against Muslims and Christians, threats of sexual violence against Muslim women along with dozens of explicit calls for genocide of Muslims by Hindu supremacist leaders since December 2021.
“In the past two years alone, we’ve seen Hindu extremists openly pitch for genocidal massacres of Muslim citizens, bulldozing of Muslim-owned homes, businesses, and places of worship, and rampant arrest of Muslims under draconian terror laws for expressing dissent,” said Ahmed.

“Now more than ever, the international community must realize that India is headed towards a dangerous path. They must put pressure on the Indian government to extend protections to its 200 million Muslims who are at the cusp of genocide. We have called on the country representatives to put special emphasis on preventing mass violence against Muslims,” Ahmed added.
“At HfHR, our goal is to be in lockstep with Indian activists and absorb the dangers that they or people from minority communities face. Our diaspora and international groups are advocating for the same policy recommendations that Indian human rights defenders have proposed, even as we all speak to a wide variety of human rights issues in India,” said Chakrabarty.
“We’ve encouraged missions to highlight the undermining of human rights by the Indian government and that over the past five years, things have only gotten worse,” she added.
They recommended that countries call upon Indian state officials to publicly condemn the "Hindu supremacist ideology and violence against religious minorities, ensure independent investigation and prosecution in all cases of state violence against minorities, and amend draconian and discriminatory legislations, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), to comply with international human rights standards."
“India’s last UPR was in 2017, and in the past five years, human rights conditions for Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and other minorities have worsened severely due to the rise of Hindu extremism under the BJP,” said Syed Afzal Ali, president of IAMC. “IAMC calls upon the international community to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further by holding India accountable in the UPR’s public forum.”

Comments

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat." In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD* Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah* The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.

Asset managers hold '2.8 times more equity' in fossil fuel cos than in green investments

By Deepanwita Gita Niyogi* The world’s largest asset managers are far off track to meet the 2050 net zero commitments , a new study released by InfluenceMap , a London-based think tank working on climate change and sustainability, says. Released on August 1, the Asset Managers and Climate Change 2023 report by FinanceMap, a work stream of InfluenceMap, finds that the world’s largest asset managers have not improved on their climate performance in the past two years.

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam* Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Victim of 'hazardous' jobs, Delhi sanitary workers get two thirds of minimum wages

By Sanjeev Kumar* Recently, the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop for sewer workers and waste pickers from all across Delhi NCR. The workshop focused on bringing sanitation workers from different parts of Delhi to train them for organization building and to discuss their issues of minimum wage, contractual labour, regular jobs and social security.

Search This Blog