NEW DELHI: India has rejected concerns raised by a UN committee over alleged racial discrimination and rights violations by law enforcement agencies, calling references in the panel’s report “politically motivated” and “highly malicious”.The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the observations were made after the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) reviewed India’s implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in Geneva on August 11-12.The ministry said India had participated in the review in a spirit of constructive engagement and remained firmly committed to combating racial discrimination.The MEA described the exercise as a routine treaty-body review in which India participated in the spirit of constructive engagement. It said India’s commitment to combating racial discrimination remained unwavering, noting that India had played a leading role in negotiating and drafting the convention in the 1960s.
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It said the Indian delegation had highlighted the country’s constitutional safeguards, legal framework, pluralistic character, affirmative action programmes, democratic accountability and judicial remedies.
Statement posted by the MEA in regards to the report
“While we will respond to the Committee’s observations through the established procedure, the inter-Ministerial delegation, which was led by the Solicitor General of India, Shri Tushar Mehta, had already rejected the sweeping generalisations, unsubstantiated allegations, or tendency to exceed the Convention’s mandate during the review meeting,” the MEA said.“India rejects any politically motivated highly malicious references in the report with all the contempt that it deserves,” it added.
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