New Indian citizenship law ’discriminatory’: UN

Saturday, 14 December 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

GENEVA (Reuters): The United Nations Human Rights Office voiced concern on Friday that India’s new citizenship law is “fundamentally discriminatory in nature” 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.