Justice For All welcomes USCIRF recommendation on India for 2022

4/25/2022

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) has for the third year in a row recommended that India be listed as a “country of particular concern” or CPC. Justice for All commends USCIRF for its in depth research and findings. India is touted as a democracy but has, disappointingly, been on a dangerous trajectory of ethno-fascism and significantly worsening lack of religious freedoms in 2021.

Justice for All’s Save India team focuses on human rights abuses occurring in India. We are in constant contact with the State Department, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and other government organizations to draw their attention to these abuses and the urgent need to hold India accountable.

India’s CPC designation does not come as a surprise given the increasing and alarming spates of attacks on religious minorities, including the targeting of mosques, homes and businesses. Our Save India team has drawn public attention to these attacks and sent several memorandums to report these incidents to the State Department and USCIRF. Like USCIRF, we have found that government officials work hand in glove with prominent Hindu nationalist clerics, who openly incite their millions of followers to take up arms against Muslims and Christians to establish a Hindu state. India is on the brink of genocide.

USCIRF’s CPC report states that the Indian government is increasingly promoting policies that negatively affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and other religious minorities in line with its Hindu-nationalist agenda. Anti-conversion laws, the hijab ban, and the recent bulldozing of Muslim homes are examples of the way the ruling BJP government continues to promote its Hindu nationalist agenda .

USCIRF’s findings affirmed the repression of critical voices of journalists and human rights defenders under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Sedition Law. Any form of dissent is met with harassment, intimidation, detention and prosecution. Human rights organizations have either been forced out of India like Amnesty International or rendered inoperable via the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). Justice for All made 38 Prisoner of Conscience submissions with USCIRF. Thirty Three political and human rights defenders have been accepted as victims by USCIRF, most of which are our filings.

Justice for All urges the State dept to accept USCIRF’s recommendation to designate India as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom , as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)

We echo USCIRF’s recommendation that the United States must impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ or entities’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States. Justice for All has filed for Global Magnitsky sanctions against three dangerous Hindutva extremists who spew vitriol against Muslims and other religious minorities. If perpetrators are not held accountable, religious minorities will continue to be vilified and targeted.

We commend Secretary Blinken for his recent public statement of India and its human rights abuses. However, the US continues to regard India as a key strategic partner. United States’ geopolitical interests cannot supersede grave human rights violations, lest we will compromise our values. We also urge the US government to appoint a Special Envoy office at the State Department to combat Islamophobia globally.

The report can be downloaded from

https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-04/2022%20USCIRF%20Annual%20Report_1.pdf