UN expressed concern over India new citizenship law
14 December, 2019
United Nations has expressed concern over India’s new citizenship law saying it is fundamentally discriminatory in nature by excluding Muslims and called for it to be reviewed.
The new law does not extend the same protection to Muslim migrants as to other religious minorities, thereby undermining India’s commitment to equality before the law, enshrined in the Constitution, UN human rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence said.
“We understand the new law will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of India and hope it will consider carefully the compatibility of the law with India’s international human rights obligations,” Laurence told a Geneva briefing.
Meanwhile, more clashes erupted between students and Indian police in the capital city of New Delhi on Friday over the contentious new citizenship law, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.
Notably, the new citizenship law lays out a path of Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups from neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which protesters in Assam say would convert thousands of illegal immigrants into legal residents.
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