GENEVA – The United Nations Human Rights office has expressed graveconcern over India’s new citizenship law that excluded Muslims, terming it‘fundamentally discriminatory in nature’.
The amendment to the Citizenship Act gives priority to Hindus, Hindus,Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects.
“Although India’s broader naturalization laws remain in place, theseamendments will have a discriminatory effect on people’s access tonationality”, Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson with the Office of the UNHigh Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said on Friday.
India’s Parliament passed the controversial law on Wednesday, which hassparked protests and clashes in several locations.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Laurence said it appears to undermineIndia’s commitment to equality before the law, as enshrined in itsConstitution.
He added that last December, India joined the international community inendorsing the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration, whichcommits countries to ensure that all measures governing migration are basedin human rights.