ISLAMABAD, Dec 23 (APP):The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Monday urged the international community and the United Nations to pressurize the Indian government to repeal the discriminatory clauses of its Citizenship legislation, abide by the relevant international norms and standards in dealing with the ongoing peaceful assembly and protests and ensure protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its minorities in accordance with the international human rights obligations.
In a statement, the Jeddah based IPHRC, strongly condemned the violence and loss of life in the wake of peaceful protests against the recently enacted discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 (CAB) by the Indian government.
It noted that Muslims all over the India as well as across sections of the Indian society had categorically rejected the CAB as a biased, discriminatory and diversionary act.
The new citizenship amendment bill, restricted the access of Muslim migrants to citizenship, which was inherently violative of international human rights obligations, it added.
Recalling the series of other discriminatory actions, which included revoking the special status of the Muslim-majority State of Indian Occupied Kashmir; discriminatory screening of Muslims from National Register of Citizens in Assam; and open plans to build a Hindu temple at the site of Centuries old Babri Mosque, the IPHRC regretted that these actions reflected a consistent pattern of the bigoted far-right Hindutva policies that aimed to subjugate Muslims in India.
While sharing the concerns expressed by the OIC on these developments, the IPHRC welcomed and echoed the assertions of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UNHCHR had declared that the Indian CAB 2019 was “fundamentally discriminatory in nature”, which was not only violative of equality before law, enshrined in its own Constitution, but also incompatible with the relevant international human rights covenants, which obligated countries to ensure that all measures governing migration were based on equality and non-discrimination, and applies to all people regardless of their race, religion, national origin or other status.
