ISLAMABAD, Jul 10 (APP):The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) on Friday highlighted a range of human rights violations in India, including freedom of association and assembly, repression of peaceful protests and the impact of COVID-19 measures in the country.
“We call on the Government of India to take urgent steps to ensure that its people enjoy the rights to express dissent and to participate in peaceful protests without fear of being arrested, brutally beaten, tortured or killed,” the ICJ and the OMCT said in a joint statement.
They welcomed the ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association’, and echoed concerns over the intensity and seriousness of the threats to the enjoyment of the rights, including the impact of current COVID-19 pandemic on the already fragile civic space.
“We are particularly alarmed over the increasingly violent repression of dissent in India, and the arbitrary detention and harassment of activists and human rights defenders by the state in relation to their participation in peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens,” the statement added.
It said the repression of anti-CAA protests had been brutal, with the police reportedly using excessive force against demonstrators, including firing indiscriminately into crowds, using teargas and water cannons, beating bystanders and detaining and torturing protesters, including children.
“At least 31 persons were killed during those protests and scores were injured. No impartial and transparent investigations into the violence has been conducted to this day.
“Reportedly fabricated charges of sedition, murder, and terrorism under repressive anti-terror and national security laws – such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the National Security Act – have been filed against activists and human rights defenders participating in the protests,” the statement said.
Those arrested and detained included Gulfisha Fatima, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Khalid Saifi, Meeran Haider, Shifa ur Rehman, Isharat Jahan, Dr Kafeel Khan, Sharjeel Imam, Akhil Gogoi and Asif Iqbal. They were still in prison despite repeated calls for their release by national and international human rights groups and the United Nations, it added.
The ICJ and OMCT said severe restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly and association had been imposed in the framework of the COVID-19 emergency, including blanket shutdown of Internet services and the imposition in several areas of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a colonial law banning public protests and gathering of more than five people.
“While appreciating India’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we remind the government that restrictions must meet the requirements of legality, necessity and proportionality and shall not be abused to muffle dissent.”
The ICJ and OMCT said the right to life and from the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment as well as the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly were protected under international laws, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which India was a party.
“We further call for a thorough, prompt, transparent and impartial investigation into allegations of unlawful use of force by police, and for the immediate release of all unjustly detained activists and HRDs (human rights defenders),” they stressed in the statement.