Abstract
ABSTRACTIn order to provide a timely assessment of India’s fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom this article explores the nature and ‘issue-salience’ of different human rights ‘pathologies’. It uses critical frame analysis of the corpus of civil society organisations’ (CSOs) submissions to the third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The findings reveal CSOs’ concerns over the weakening of rule of law institutions and restrictions on civil society during the period under study. This has impacted upon the ability of human rights defenders to protect religious freedom. The civil society discourse also highlights a broad range of failings; including communal violence, police malpractice/ judicial shortcomings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. In contrast, the Government’s UPR submission fails to acknowledge these issues. In conceptual terms, this disconnect suggests performativity and legitimation are a feature of the post-2014 NDA administration’s framing of human rights. It appears to embrace civil society engagement and the promotion of religious freedom in a way that advances political legitimacy, whereas civil society accounts suggest otherwise and point to ‘legitimation’ – or a disjuncture between rhetoric and reality.
Highlights
Recent years have seen growing international and domestic concern over ‘the multiple forms of discrimination that may affect ... persons belonging to religious and linguistic minorities’,1 and ‘violence against members of religious minorities and human rights defenders’.2 Such concerns are intimately linked to India and the politics of the world’s largest democracy
Detailed, close reading revealed the key pathologies associated with religious freedom issues in the UN Human Rights Council reportage associated with the Universal Periodic Review
A key finding is that civil society organisations’ identification of violence as the principal human rights pathology in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) corpus is reflected in the framing of the discourse on religious freedom
Summary
Recent years have seen growing international and domestic concern over ‘the multiple forms of discrimination that may affect ... persons belonging to religious and linguistic minorities’,1 and ‘violence against members of religious minorities and human rights defenders’.2 Such concerns are intimately linked to India and the politics of the world’s largest democracy. In the wake of the 2019 BJP election victory, the present critical analysis of the UPR provides needed insight into how the situation has changed since the election of the National Democratic Alliance in May 2014; not least because of increasing concerns over state suppression of civil society in today’s India. In the wake of the Second Cycle UPR in 2012, it accepted Human Rights Council (HRC) recommendations on safeguarding the role of civil society in preventing discrimination and violence against members of religious minorities.[40] Yet crucially, 2014 saw a change of administration with the election of the NDA government. Following an outline of the methodology, attention turns to the study findings and civil society views on whether there has been progress – or further set-backs and ongoing rights violations
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