UN test for India's human rights record today

India's human rights record is set to be scrutinised at Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nation's Human Rights Council in (UNHRC) at Geneva on Thursday. While the government has chosen to send Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, its highest legal officer, to defend it and explain the legal jurisprudence in India, representatives from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and from several NGOs are set to put forward a shadow report. The reports accessed by DNA show they are at variance with each other, making government position more difficult.

Even as the official report filed by India's permanent mission at the UN has highlighted achievements related to human rights front, the NHRC has made scathing comments on legal system, calling it dysfunctional with slow disposal of cases. The NHRC has also pointed out inordinate delays in providing criminal and civil litigation, with the NHRC report stating that there is need for governments to be more vigilant in view of the recent happening in a few states. Maintaining that the turmoil in Kashmir was "augmented by trans-border terrorism and jihadi funding from the neighbouring country", it has said the use of plastic pellets by CAPFs (Central Armed Police Forces) was controversial.

In its report, the government has said that AFSPA is a matter "of on-going and vibrant political debate in the country." The government's report further added that, "While on the one hand in 2015 one state withdrew the application of AFSPA to that state, in another the judiciary has asked the Government to consider imposing AFSPA in parts of that state."

Advance questions, that are submitted by member countries, will follow India's presentation of its report on human rights at the nearly four-hour session. Some of these questions include India's stand on torture, specially in Jammu and Kashmir. Czechia has asked about the measures India has adopted to step up the fight against caste-based violence and discrimination, including deeply-rooted caste-based prejudice. Netherlands has asked about rights of religious minorities and freedom of religion and belief protected under the various anti-conversion laws that are practice in seven states, and to what degree has their situations improved since the last UPR.

Belgium has put forward questions on India's measures to ensure a standard operating procedure for all state-level police personnel to register and investigate cases of violence against women. While Spain has asked India if it intends to repeal section 377 of the Penal Code to affirm the equal rights of transgender people.

The hearings are held every five years for every country, that call for reports from both governmental and non-governmental agencies from the other countries of the council of 47 members, the US Congress and civil society groups, and other international agencies like Human Rights Watch.

Ministry of External Affairs here said they would convey the Indian legal system's impartial standards. On the NHRC report, which is at variance with the government, MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said it demonstrates strenghth and impartiality of Indian institutions. The council has also received dozens of submissions regarding hate speech against minorities, cases of cow vigilantism and love jihad, from advocacy groups like Centre for Justice and Peace (CJP), among others that Rohatgi will have to answer.

Advocacy groups have described government report as deeply disappointing. Director Advocacy at the Indian American Muslim Council Ajit Sahi, said the government had promised at both the previous UPRs of 2008 and 2012 that it would take several steps, including the ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture, But there has been no action on these fronts." This despite the fact that a large number of stakeholders including the civil society, the UN agencies, rapporteurs and manadates and even the NHRC have explicitly detailed such human rights abuses in India in their reports to the UPR," he said.