UN experts flag ‘heavy-handed’ police response to peaceful protests in India

Amid ongoing protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday flagged the repeated “heavy-handed police response to peaceful youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi and other parts of the country”. They urged the Indian government to “cease the use of excessive force, rescind blanket assembly bans and refrain from the misuse of digital surveillance”.

The statement was issued by a group of special rapporteurs, independent experts and members of UN working groups appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to report on specific rights violations and country situations. They serve in their individual capacities and are independent of any government and the UN.

The experts noted that over the last months, “hundreds of thousands of students and their supporters have been gathering peacefully to protest in different parts of the country against government decisions regarding the education system, and more recently, voter-roll deletions which affect [13 crore] individuals, reportedly belonging to the Muslim minority, Scheduled Castes and Tribes”.

They added that “despite the non-violent nature of the assemblies”, law enforcement agencies had reportedly used force against unarmed students, including lathi charges and prevented thousands from joining the protests.

Recently, more than 7,000 persons, including young persons, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and political party members,...

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