By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI:India is scheduled to submit its action taken report to the UN’s top anti-racism body, United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee) today i.e. 15 July 2022 on the steps taken to prevent and halt any measures directed at deporting or relocating the Chakma and Hajong communities of Arunachal Pradesh, including through the special census; the measures adopted to prevent and combat racial profiling or racial discrimination against the persons belonging to the Chakma and Hajong communities; and the implementation of the judgements of the Supreme Court of India in the cases of the National Human Rights Commission v. State of Arunachal Pradesh and Anr and the Committee for C.R. of C.A.P. & Ors vs State of Arunachal Pradesh & Ors.
On 29 April 2022, the UN’s top anti-racism body consisting of 18 experts elected by the members of the United Nations directed India to submit its action taken report after it intervened against announcement of relocation by Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh in August 2001, the special census of the Chakmas and Hajongs launched by Deputy Commissioner of Changlang district in November 2021 with a view to deporting Chakmas and Hajongs from Arunachal Pradesh State, and never processing their citizenship applications as directed by the Supreme Court of India in the two judgments.
“The intervention of the UN top anti-racism body is a recognition of racial discrimination faced by the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh by the United Nations. That the UN has to intervene seeking implementation of the Supreme Court’s judgements in the country sends an absolutely wrong message on India. If the Supreme Court judgments are not implemented by the Union of India and the State of Arunachal Pradesh, it basically means that the rule of law does not exist in the country for the Chakmas and Hajongs.”- stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Founder of the Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI).
India had ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1968 accepting its legal enforceability in India and on 21 September 2010, India also issued gazette notification specifying the Convention “as an international covenant in its application to the protection of human rights in India” under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
