UNITED NATIONS, Sep 11 (APP): A United Nations human rights expert has voiced deep concern over the discriminatory treatment of Muslims in India following the enforcement of the new, highly controversial citizenship law.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minorities, Fernand de Varennes, said in his latest report that he continues to receive “disturbing reports” from India where the new legislation excluding members of the country’s Muslim minority from accelerated pathways to citizenship may lead to statelessness of millions.
The report will be formally presented during the 75th Session of UN General Assembly, which opens in New York next week.
Following the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the United Nations human rights office said that it is “fundamentally discriminatory in nature” by excluding Muslims, and called for a review.
The new law does not extend the same protection to Muslim migrants as to six other religious minorities fleeing persecution, thereby undermining India’s commitment to equality before the law, enshrined in its constitution, U.N. human rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva news briefing in December last.
The new report for the upcoming Assembly session said, “The Special Rapporteur again calls upon UNHCR, the Secretary General, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council –with millions of members of minorities at risk of being deemed foreigners, being subjected to new legislation that excludes Muslim minorities from gaining access to certain pathways to citizenship acquisition and possibly finding themselves stateless – to consider engaging immediately in discussions with India and taking global action in order to protect the human rights of some of the world’s most vulnerable, and avoid growing instances of hate speech and violence directed towards Muslim minorities in what could become a threat to regional peace and security.”
It is not the first time that Varennes, the UN rapporteur, has raised concerns about the treatment of Muslims and other minorities in India. Even in his report to the General Assembly last year, he voiced similar concerns. However, his repeated requests for access and country visit have been denied by the Government of India.
