Manipur and Nuh in UN Human Rights Commissioner’s speech, urges India to redouble efforts to protect rights of minorities

Days after India raised strong objection to observations made by the United Nations human rights experts panel on Manipur, the issue of violence in the North Eastern state is back on the table of UN. At the start of the 54th session of UN Human Rights Council on Monday UN human rights chief Volker Türk has urged India to redouble its efforts to protect and uphold the rights of the minorities. This time Türk didn’t refer to Manipur alone, rather also highlighted the violent communal clashes in parts of Haryana including Nuh that had claimed at least seven lives last month. 

“Frequently receives information that marginalised minority communities are subjected to violence and discrimination. Muslims are often the target of such attacks, most recently in Haryana and Gurugram, in northern India”, said The UN Human Rights Commissioner. But for Türk the dominant subject from India was the ongoing violence in Manipur which started on May 3 and continued unabated till date. While the Government of Manipur maintains that the situation in the state is improving but that as an assurance didn’t stop UN Human Rights Commissioner from not raking the issue. 

 “In Manipur, other communities have also been facing violence and insecurity since May, more than 200 people have died and over 70,000 people have been displaced.” Said Türk while adding that there is a “clear need to redouble efforts to uphold the rights of all minorities, by dealing in a forthright manner with intolerance, hate speech, religious extremism and discrimination”.

But it wasn’t India alone that found a mention in the opening remarks of the UN human rights commissioner. He raised concerns about Pakistan and China as well. Türk was critical of Pakistan government considering amending its blasphemy laws to increase penalties. He also highlighted the series of churches and Christian domes vandalised in Faisalabad, by mob, indicating the plight of minorities in Pakistan.