India Rejects UN Committee’s Critique on Human Rights and Discrimination as “Politically Motivated”

India has strongly dismissed concerns expressed by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) regarding alleged large-scale violations by law enforcement authorities against marginalized communities, including ethnic and ethno-religious groups, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, indigenous populations, Dalits, and non-citizens. The UN panel brought forward these criticisms following a comprehensive review of India’s implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which took place in Geneva on August 11 and 12. In response, official statements from New Delhi issued on August 26 firmly rejected the committee’s remarks, characterizing the references as entirely “politically motivated” and “highly malicious.”