India Criticizes UN Report on Religious Freedom, Calls It Biased
India rebuffs a UN report on religious freedom, alleging bias and neglect of terrorisms severity in its findings.
United Nations, October 23 (Daily Kiran) : India’s mission to the United Nations has expressed strong disapproval of a report from the UN Special Rapporteur on religious freedom, which referenced burial practices in India. Officials argue that the report displays bias and fails to adequately address the severity of terrorism.
On Thursday, Bhavika Mangalanandan, First Secretary of India’s UN mission, stated, “Political gain should not come from the pain and loss of people, which should not be the basis for a special rapporteur’s report.” She emphasized the troubling advocacy for the rights of terrorists, while showing little concern for the victims of terrorism.
Mangalanandan spoke during a session of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on humanitarian issues. Her comments were in response to the report by Nazila Ghanea, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. The report addressed “freedom of religion or belief in extraordinary circumstances and the right to burial.”
The report noted that some bodies of individuals killed during security operations in Kashmir were not returned to their families and were buried in remote areas. It also claimed that authorities imposed restrictions on the burials of individuals who died during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), citing “law and order” concerns.
Nazila Ghanea is a professor of international human rights law at Oxford University. Special rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and operate independently.
India’s critique highlighted that allegations of discrimination related to burials during the COVID-19 pandemic were only discussed in the context of the Global South, neglecting incidents in developed nations. Mangalanandan remarked, “The report implies that all mistakes and discrimination during COVID-19 occurred solely in the Global South.”
She questioned the report’s effectiveness by not mentioning similar tragic events in developed countries. For instance, thousands of COVID-19 victims in New York City were buried in mass graves on a separate island, yet the report made no reference to such occurrences.
Mangalanandan also addressed accusations from Pakistan, labeling them as ironic. “It is ironic that a country that did not accept the bodies of its soldiers killed in the 1999 Kargil War is now enthusiastically discussing religion, religious freedom, and burial rights,” she stated, adding that the Indian army had respectfully buried many Pakistani soldiers according to Islamic customs.
She urged Pakistan to focus on the Kashmir region it occupies illegally, rather than continuously commenting on India. Mangalanandan pointed out that the rights of minorities in Pakistan are continually eroding, with regular reports of mistreatment. “A country that cannot ensure the safety of its own minorities has no right to lecture India,” she concluded.
