In a letter addressed to Indian Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) expressed serious concerns over arrests of human rights defenders in India and the broad use of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to intimidate, harass and silence them.

The letter was sent on Friday by Marie Arena, Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), a parliamentary body that actively monitors human rights developments across the globe and publicly advocates in favour of the respect for fundamental rights.

The letter drew attention to the vagueness of UAPA where it could allow for wide discretion by the government in applying the law and it being used to silence human rights defenders.

Ms. Arena pointed out the recent arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, Safoora Zargar, Gulfisha Fatima, Khalid Saifi, Meeran Haider, Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Dr Kafeel Khan, Asif Iqbal, and Sharjeel Imam for various advocacy activities against laws, policies and governmental actions, including the Citizenship Amendment Act to be a violation of international human rights.

The letter urged that measures be taken to ‘stop impeding and criminalising the work of human rights defenders by means of overly broad national security legislation and to respect their freedoms of association and expression.’

Police personnel pelt stone at students during an anti CAA protest in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Photo (including the featured one): Sreekanth Sivadasan

The letter reiterated the repeated calls by the United Nations for an immediate release of prisoners of conscience as part of overall efforts to contain Covid19 outbreak.

The letter encouraged India join in and implement fully the guidelines adopted by Supreme Court aiming at reducing detainee population at this difficult time, enforcing that it is a common duty and responsibility to protect human rights without discrimination.

As of today, with the biggest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases of 7,466, India overtook Turkey to become the ninth worst-affected country by coronavirus pandemic with a total of 1,65,799 confirmed cases.

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