Global Human Rights Activists Reiterate Demand to Designate India a “Country of Particular Concern”
Leading American and global human and civil rights activists came together on Monday to reinforce the demand to designate India as a “country of particular concern” to prevent and combat ongoing persecution of its religious minorities. The discussion was organized by the Indian American Muslim Council in collaboration with Hindus for Human Rights, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, Dalit Solidarity Forum, India Civil Watch International and International Christian Concern.
Anurima Bhargava, the vice-chair of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said that as an ally and as a friend of India, the United States “needs to take steps to make sure that India upholds the rights guaranteed to all of its citizens as enshrined in its own constitution.”
Ms Bhargava, expressed the fear that the CAA in conjunction with the planned nationwide national register of citizens (NRC) and national population register (NPR), could result in “wide scale disenfranchisement of Indian Muslims which could lead them vulnerable to prolonged detention, deportation and violence.”
“We saw this process play out in Assam. Many Indian citizens had their citizenship questioned and challenged by local authorities who excluded them from the national register of citizens despite their families having lived in India for generations.”
“And for that reason,” she added, “we made the recommendation to the State Department of the United States that India should be designated as a ‘country of particular concern,’” based on the deterioration and concerns about new state policies of the Narendra Modi government on religious minorities.
Joanne Lin, National Director, Advocacy and Government Affairs, Amnesty International USA, spoke about Amnesty India being forced to shut down its operation in India in October 2020 after two years of relentless threats, intimidation, and harassment by the Indian government.
Ms Lin reminded the audience that it was in the wake of two major human rights reports that Amnesty India’s bank accounts were frozen which forced Amnesty India to halt its human rights work and shut down its operations in India. The first report covered the February 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi and documented police complicity in the violence against Muslims. The second report addressed arbitrary detentions and internet restrictions that persist in Kashmir, one year after it was stripped of its special status. Both reports contained findings critical of Indian authorities that were confirmed by other independent observers.
The Indian government’s crackdown on civil society violated the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly which are guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and international human rights law. “Forcing Amnesty India to shut down its operations, is a devastating setback for Indian human rights defenders, civil society organizations, and most alarmingly, the millions of people in India who have been aided by Amnesty’s human rights work.” added Ms Lin.
Ms Lin reiterated that Amnesty USA urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun to demand Indian authorities to unfreeze Amnesty India’s bank accounts.
Among others who raised their concern over the worsening religious persecution and civil rights violations in India, included Matias Perttula, Advocacy Director, International Christian Concern, Arjun Sethi, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, Salam Al Marayati, President,
Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Roja Singh, President, Dalit Solidarity Forum. The recorded event can be found on IAMC's YouTube Channel
The webinar was moderated by Rasheed Ahmad, executive director of Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). IAMC is dedicated to promoting the common values of pluralism, tolerance, and respect for human rights that form the basis of the world’s two largest secular democracies – the United States and India. |
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Genocide of Indian Muslims Supervised by Indian Government, Declare Global Experts on Genocide
Global experts researching genocidal violence raised an alarm that the international community needed to wake up to the impending genocide of India’s 200 Million Muslims under the watch of current Indian government. The panel discussion on “Ten Stages of Genocide and India’s Muslims,” expressed an urgent need to not only indict and sanction the Indian government, but to also expose it in the international community to prevent crimes against humanity. The discussion was organized by the Indian American Muslim Council.
Dr Gregory Stanton, the founder-president of Genocide Watch, an organization that works to predict, prevent and stop genocide and other forms of mass murder in the world said, “Preparation for a genocide is definitely under way in India.” He explained, “The persecution of Muslims in Assam and Kashmir is the stage just before genocide. The next stage is extermination—that’s what we call a genocide.”
Dr Stanton who served in the US State Department in the 1990s when he drafted the UN Security Council resolutions that created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said that the “systematic crimes against humanity is already underway” in India. He mentioned the demolition of Babri mosque and building of a temple as “important in the development of cultural underpinnings for genocide.”
Reacting to the fact that Delhi Police arrested hundreds of Muslims in Delhi riot cases and accused them of violence against themselves, Dr Stanton termed it “denial,” the last stage in genocide. “Denial is the tenth stage of every genocide. It starts actually at the beginning and goes all the way through to the end and afterwards…That’s what is going on when they are charging Muslims with, would you believe it! killing themselves? I don't believe it! And I don't think anybody should believe it,” Dr Stanton said.
Teesta Setalvad, a well-known human rights defender in India mentioned that violence against Muslims worsens their socio-economic conditions and enables genocidal targeting. “Lack of social and economic opportunities, constant fear and insecurity among the Indian Muslims which is generated through this abrasive exclusionary tactic of hate speech and othering, is something that could possibly fit in to the possible build-up of the genocidal situation,” said Ms Setalvad who did years of pioneering work in exposing and bringing to justice the perpetrators of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat.
Dr Qasim Rasool Ilyas, a veteran Muslim political activist, and the father of Dr Umar Khalid, a globally recognized human rights defender who has been falsely accused of inciting violence and arrested just weeks ago, mentioned that Muslims of Uttar Pradesh are among the worst affected by the persecution and killings.
He summed it up, “The chief Minister Mr Yogi Aditya Nath is a known enemy of Muslims, is the main architect of systematic targeting of the Muslim community through encounter killing to illegal arrests and falsely framing. Many Muslims were subjected to mob lynching on the false accusations of trading and consuming beef and in many cases the victims succumbed to the torture while Police remained a mute spectator.
Dr Ilyas concluded his remarks with a question: “Can a country which claims to be the largest democracy, force its 14% of the population into suppression and submission and deny them their human and constitutional rights without inviting the wrath of the international community?”
Among others who talked about India exhibiting various stages of genocide included Ritumbra Manuvie, the Executive Director of The London Story, a nonprofit foundation that works on hate speech and hate crimes. As a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Manuvie conducted research on the construction of citizenship in Assam, the Indian state where Mr Modi’s government has controversially designated two million residents as foreigners following a dubious process called the National Register for Citizens.
Rasheed Ahmed, Executive Director of Indian American Muslim Council sharply criticized the silence of the United State government about the February 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi not far from where President Trump held a press conference. Tina Ramirez, a Human Rights expert, who has travelled to India and knows all too well the deepening challenges to religious freedoms in India, effectively moderated the panel discussion.
The event recording is available for viewing on IAMC’s YouTube channel .
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