US Voices Concern Over India's Citizenship Law; UN Calls It 'fundamentally Discriminatory

Voicing concern over India's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the United States has said it is monitoring the implementation of this law

WASHINGTON, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2024) Voicing concern over India's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the United States has said it is monitoring the implementation of this law.

"Respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law for all communities are fundamental democratic principles," State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller said in response to a question from a Pakistani channel reporter at his daily new briefing on Thursday.

"So we are concerned about the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on March 11. We are closely monitoring this act – how this act will be implemented," he added.

The US remarks came at the back of a strong statement by the office of United Nations High Commissioner for human rights, saying the new citizenship law in India was "fundamentally discriminatory" in nature.

The amendment to the Citizenship Act gives priority to Hindus, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects.

"Although India's broader naturalization laws remain in place, these amendments will have a discriminatory effect on people's access to nationality", Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said on Friday.

India's Parliament passed the controversial law on Wednesday, which has sparked protests and clashes in several locations.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Laurence said it appears to undermine India's commitment to equality before the law, as enshrined in its Constitution.

He added that last December, India joined the international community in endorsing the Global Compact for Safe, Regular

and Orderly Migration, which commits countries to ensure that all measures governing migration are based in human rights.

All migrants, regardless of their migration status, are entitled to respect, protection and fulfilment of their human rights, he said.

Furthermore, while protecting persecuted groups is welcome, the UN human rights office, OHCHR said this should happen through a robust asylum system based on equality and non-discrimination, and which applies to all people regardless of race, religion, national origin or other status.

"We understand the new law will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of India and hope it will consider carefully the compatibility of the law with India's international human rights obligations", Laurence said.

Meanwhile, international media outlets are reporting that two people were killed and many others injured, in demonstrations held in northern India on Thursday to protest the new measure.

OHCHR has urged the authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly, while all sides should refrain from resorting to violence.

On the other hand, Amnesty International said the operationalization of the CAA is a blow to the Indian constitutional values of equality and religious non-discrimination and inconsistent and incompatible with India's international human rights obligations.

The Citizenship Amendment Act is a bigoted law that legitimizes discrimination on the basis of religion and should never have been enacted in the first place. Its operationalization is a poor reflection on the Indian authorities as they fail to listen to a multitude of voices critical of the CAA – from people across the country, civil society, interrnational human rights organizations and the United Nations, said Aakar Patel, chair of the board at Amnesty International India.

Four years after the contentious Citizenship was enacted, the Hindu-nationalist Narendra Modi government on Monday, March 11, notified necessary rules for the law to be implemented. Without rules being framed, the Act could not be implemented.

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