June 10th, 2022
This week, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced the establishment of the Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee.
Committee members will provide recommendations on Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy, especially concerning trade deals and business opportunities. As a non-profit advocacy organization, Justice for All Canada is focused on ensuring that Canada’s growing bilateral relations are built on international human rights obligations and principles.
“We ask the Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee to consider that investment pathways with India’s BJP government must not be at the expense of human rights and security of persecuted religious minorities in the region,” said Executive Director Taha Ghayyur.
India, a vital region of the Indo-Pacific, is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing nationalist government implicated in crimes against humanity by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Human rights groups have long documented the Indian government’s exclusionary framework that gives tacit support to right-wing groups to threaten, attack and discriminate against religious minorities with impunity. The United Nations has condemned Islamophobic laws introduced by the BJP as “fundamentally discriminatory,” such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, told a US congressional briefing that the demonizing and discriminatory processes that lead to genocide have been underway against Muslims in India.
Muslim minorities as well as Christian, Dalit, Sikh and other marginalized communities, are regularly discriminated against, a crime that undermines India’s secular constitution.
Justice For All Canada will support Indo-Pacific recommendations that promote accountability of BJP leaders who have failed to take action against perpetrators of violence, including Hindu nationalist groups who attack Muslims and government critics with impunity. As Canada diversifies its trade and develops an Indo-Pacific strategy, it must be premised on human rights. Canada cannot profit on the backs of 200 million Muslims facing ongoing genocidal threats in India.
This week, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced the establishment of the Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee.
Committee members will provide recommendations on Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy, especially concerning trade deals and business opportunities. As a non-profit advocacy organization, Justice for All Canada is focused on ensuring that Canada’s growing bilateral relations are built on international human rights obligations and principles.
“We ask the Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee to consider that investment pathways with India’s BJP government must not be at the expense of human rights and security of persecuted religious minorities in the region,” said Executive Director Taha Ghayyur.
India, a vital region of the Indo-Pacific, is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing nationalist government implicated in crimes against humanity by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Human rights groups have long documented the Indian government’s exclusionary framework that gives tacit support to right-wing groups to threaten, attack and discriminate against religious minorities with impunity. The United Nations has condemned Islamophobic laws introduced by the BJP as “fundamentally discriminatory,” such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, told a US congressional briefing that the demonizing and discriminatory processes that lead to genocide have been underway against Muslims in India.
Muslim minorities as well as Christian, Dalit, Sikh and other marginalized communities, are regularly discriminated against, a crime that undermines India’s secular constitution.
- Tacit BJP approval: During the 2020 anti-CAA protests, the UN accused BJP leaders and supporters of inciting hatred and violence. UN experts blamed Indian police for failing to act against them, while conducting serious human rights violations, torture, and ill-treatment of peaceful protesters.
- Anti-free speech: In March and July 2021, UN human rights expert mandates wrote to India’s BJP government to inquire into the death, custodial killing, and enforced disappearance of several Kashmiri community leaders and civilians who were arbitrarily detained under draconian laws like the Public Safety Act (PSA).
- Censorship: In June 2021, the UN rapporteur on freedom of expression and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed concerns over the harassment, raids, arbitrary detention and intimidation of journalists covering the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
- Impunity for security forces: The National Human Rights Commission recorded widespread torture and extrajudicial killings: In 2021, 143 people died in police custody, while 104 extrajudicial killings were carried out.
- Attacks against religious minorities, tribal and Indigenous groups: Hindu nationalist mobs frequently attack and beat-up working-class Muslim men with little accountability from Indian police or government officials. In this process, critics or dissenters receive baseless complaints filed by pro-BJP supporters.
- Right to education: In March 2022, a high court in Karnataka state upheld a government hijab ban order, making it impossible for Muslim girl students to attend schools, colleges, or write exams across South India.
- Women’s and girls’ rights: In August 2021, a 9 -year-old Dalit girl was raped and killed, spotlighting the heightened risk of sexual violence faced by Dalit women.
Justice For All Canada will support Indo-Pacific recommendations that promote accountability of BJP leaders who have failed to take action against perpetrators of violence, including Hindu nationalist groups who attack Muslims and government critics with impunity. As Canada diversifies its trade and develops an Indo-Pacific strategy, it must be premised on human rights. Canada cannot profit on the backs of 200 million Muslims facing ongoing genocidal threats in India.