United Nations, India has asserted that human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or selective targeting of countries, as it opposed attempts to turn allegations and incomplete statistics into a “negative characterisation” of the world’s largest democracy.
“India engages with international human rights mechanisms, but such engagement must be based on dialogue, consultation, cooperation with non-selectivity and transparency as guiding principles,” Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Barkha Tamrakar said. “We call on delegations to cite the report faithfully, not to inflate a humanitarian communication into a verdict,” Tamrakar said. India remains prepared to clarify specific, properly documented cases through established channels but it formally opposes any “attempt to convert unverified allegations, incomplete statistics or a report that contains no India country observation into a negative characterisation of the world’s largest democracy”, she said.
She underlined that human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or selective targeting of countries. Tamrakar’s remarks came amid concerns raised by UN human rights experts over the recent youth-led protests in New Delhi. Tamrakar delivered India’s statement at the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on the agenda item concerning the ‘Working Group on Enforced Disappearances’ here on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, more than 20 UN human rights experts in Geneva expressed alarm over what they described as a “repeatedly heavy-handed police response” to peaceful youth-led demonstrations in the national capital.
