On December 4th of 2019, the legislative organ of India, Parliament of India, passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (C.A.A).  Under the amendment of the 1955 Citizenship Act, it is established that the process in order to obtain Indian Citizenship, would become uncomplicated for migrants under the case that the same suffer religious persecution. 

What it seems to be an Act which favors Human Rights by protecting victims of systematic, targeted persecutions, is in fact an act based on discrimination. The reason for this statement is the fact that under the same amendment, Muslim immigrants and refugees from a wide variety of religions do not have the same benefits. Specifically, only Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan whom entered before December 2014, are granted the privileges. 

Within the excluded groups the Muslim Rohingya are as well denied citizenship. We must remember that since 2016, the Government of Myanmar has conducted an ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya population in the country in which 10.000 have been killed and more than a million have conducted forced migration. 

Aside from the act itself, peaceful protests have emerged throughout the entire country against the C.A.A. The response of the government has been repression and the denial to internet in many locations. These two acts go against Articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

The HRI for peace and freedom condemns the fact that the C.A.A is based on discrimination which goes against article 7 of the UDHR. We desire for the international community and inter-governmental bodies to address the situation. Most important, the HRI calls the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, Michelle Bachelet (@mbachelet), to pronounce herself and act accordingly to the situation. 

“All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”