The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has raised grave concerns over India’s treatment of minorities, including Rohingya refugees, Dalits, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims, citing hate crimes, racial profiling and abuses linked to the NRC. India’s government has forcefully rejected the findings as politically motivated and malicious, insisting it remains committed to protecting vulnerable communities.
THE UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has voiced its “grave concerns” about the mistreatment of minority groups in India — including Rohingya refugees, Scheduled Tribes, Dalits, and Muslims. On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, the committee issued its findings after reviewing the state of human rights in the country for the first time since 2007, when India implemented the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination — a UN human rights treaty aimed at eradicating apartheid and segregation.
The UN committee conducted the eleventh periodic review of India on August 11-12, 2026, with solicitor general Tushar Mehta as the head of the Indian delegation. After the completion of the periodic review, the UN committee’s “concluding observation” raised concerns over human rights violations in the country such as caste discrimination, attacks on minorities, shrinking civic space, racial profiling, the treatment of migrants, and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India.
The UN committee released a press statement about its findings and called for timely action to address the rising rate of “hate speech” and “hate crime” in India. It commented upon the increase in crimes and other hate-motivated actions against Bengali-speaking Muslims and urged the Government of India to “ensure accountability” for these violations.
“The Committee was gravely concerned about reports of large-scale violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against ethnic and ethno-religious groups, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, particularly Dalits, and non-citizens,” the press release stated.
“These included racially motivated violence, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention without due process, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence,” the press release further remarked.
The UN committee further noted that India has witnessed a steep rise in law enforcement actions targeting Rohingya, Bengali-speaking Muslims, migrants, and asylum-seekers. These actions by authorities surged after the 2017 Ministry of Home Affairs order — that officiated the detainment and deportment of undocumented foreign nationals including Rohingya migrants — and the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir. The committee said that police check posts are engrossing in “racial profiling” of individuals resulting in arrest and detention without due process.
The UN committee also objected to India implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) — an official record containing names of legal Indian citizens. As of now, the exercise is only implemented in the state of Assam. The committee claimed the implementation of NRC was leading to mass arbitrary deprivation of citizenship and urged India to suspend the administrative exercise and to review its legislative framework.
On Wednesday, August 26, 2026, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Randhir Jaiswal rejected the observations made by the UN committee regarding the mistreatment of disadvantaged communities in the country. Calling the observations “politically motivated” and “malicious,” the spokesperson reiterated India’s commitment towards protecting vulnerable communities from harm and prejudice.
“While we will respond to the Committee’s observations through the established procedure, the inter-Ministerial delegation, which was led by the Solicitor General of India, Shri Tushar Mehta, had already rejected the sweeping generalisations, unsubstantiated allegations, or tendency to exceed the Convention’s mandate during the review meeting,” the MEA spokesperson remarked. “India rejects any politically motivated highly malicious references in the report with all the contempt that it deserves,” Jaiswal added.
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
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