In a sig­nif­i­cant diplo­matic ma­neou­vre, Sikhs from 40 coun­tries, span­ning from Afghanistan to the United States, ral­lied to­gether to ad­dress the “de­te­ri­o­rat­ing hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion in In­dia” with the un­prece­dented step of ap­peal­ing di­rectly to the United Na­tions, fo­cus­ing their ef­forts on the im­me­di­ate ap­point­ment of a Spe­cial Rap­por­teur ded­i­cated to mon­i­tor­ing and re­port­ing in the re­gion. WSN re­ports.

Debunk­ing In­di­a’s re­frain about the role of the In­dian state in com­mit­ting hu­man rights abuse, a Sikh del­e­ga­tion pre­sented an ex­haus­tive mem­o­ran­dum to the United Na­tions High Com­mis­sioner for Hu­man Rights -Mr. Volker Türk, con­ducted a rally at the Geneva head­quar­ters of the UN, em­pha­siz­ing the grim state of civil and po­lit­i­cal rights in con­tem­po­rary In­dia.

The mem­o­ran­dum sub­mit­ted by the lead­ers of the joint global ef­fort, cited both his­tor­i­cal and re­cent events, in­clud­ing the state­ment by Cana­dian Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau in the Cana­dian Par­lia­ment on 18 Sep­tem­ber 2023. Clearly, Trudeau’s com­ments, which al­leged In­dian gov­ern­ment in­volve­ment in the as­sas­si­na­tion of Sikh leader Hard­eep Singh Ni­j­jar on Cana­dian soil, have reignited the global spot­light on In­di­a’s hu­man rights records, par­tic­u­larly those con­cern­ing the Sikh com­mu­nity. His com­ments have thrown into stark re­lief con­cerns over In­di­a’s re­spect for the rule of law and sov­er­eignty of other na­tions.

It would be in­ter­est­ing to see how the UN High Com­mis­sioner for Hu­man Rights -Volker Türk -an ace UN spe­cial­ist re­sponds to the plea of the Sikhs, par­tic­u­larly in light of the at­ten­tion that the Sikh cause gar­nered last month af­ter lead­ers glob­ally from Canada to the USA and the in­ter­na­tional me­dia high­lighted the Sikh strug­gle for rights.

The Sikhs, re­sid­ing in coun­tries as di­verse as Afghanistan, Aus­tralia, Aus­tria, Bel­gium, Canada, China, Cyprus, Den­mark, Fiji, Fin­land, France, Ger­many, Greece, In­dia, In­done­sia, Ire­land, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mex­ico, Nepal, Nether­lands, New Zealand, Nor­way, Pak­istan, Philip­pines, Poland, Por­tu­gal, Rus­sia, Sin­ga­pore, South Africa, Spain, Swe­den, Switzer­land, Tan­za­nia, Thai­land, United Arab Emi­rates, United King­dom, and the United States of Amer­ica, have uni­fied in their mis­sion. Their col­lec­tive voice is in­tended to am­plify con­cerns about al­leged ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings, dis­crim­i­na­tion against mi­nori­ties, and an over­ar­ch­ing nar­ra­tive of In­di­a’s drift from democ­racy to au­toc­racy.

Last week, Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the world held a rally out­side the United Na­tions in Geneva to raise con­cerns over what they term the “de­te­ri­o­rat­ing hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion in In­dia.” Par­tic­i­pants at the rally aimed to high­light not just past in­jus­tices but re­cent de­vel­op­ments that sug­gest in­ten­si­fied In­dian gov­ern­ment in­ter­fer­ence in for­eign coun­tries, es­pe­cially tar­get­ing Sikh ac­tivists ad­vo­cat­ing for a Sikh home­land.

Their out­reach to the UN in­cludes a se­ries of com­plaints and re­quests, from seek­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions into spe­cific in­ci­dents like the as­sas­si­na­tion of Hard­eep Singh Ni­j­jar to broader ap­peals such as the des­ig­na­tion of a Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on the hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion in In­dia.

The Sikh Fed­er­a­tion UK which co­or­di­nated with Sikhs across coun­tries told me­dia per­sons that they had sub­mit­ted com­plaints to the Spe­cial Pro­ce­dures, ad­dress­ing the ex­tra­ju­di­cial killing of Hard­eep Singh Ni­j­jar and the mys­te­ri­ous dis­ap­pear­ance of Jaswant Singh Khalra.

“The Sikh Fed­er­a­tion UK has also reached out to the Of­fice on Geno­cide Pre­ven­tion, the Re­spon­si­bil­ity to Pro­tect, and the In­ter­na­tional Crim­i­nal Court.”

“We have sub­mit­ted com­plaints to the Spe­cial Pro­ce­dures, ad­dress­ing the ex­tra­ju­di­cial killing of Hard­eep Singh Ni­j­jar and the mys­te­ri­ous dis­ap­pear­ance of Jaswant Singh Khalra.” 

Dabinder­jit Singh, Sikh Fed­er­a­tion UK

The mem­o­ran­dum also sheds light on his­toric atroc­i­ties, in­clud­ing the 1984 Sikh Geno­cide, which has been rec­og­nized by the cur­rent In­dian gov­ern­ment and its courts. It em­pha­sizes the need for global ac­knowl­edg­ment and ef­forts to pre­vent any re­oc­cur­rence.

This col­lec­tive ef­fort by Sikhs across the globe rep­re­sents an ex­ten­sive diplo­matic cam­paign, lever­ag­ing global in­sti­tu­tions to en­sure jus­tice and pro­tect hu­man rights for the Sikhs.

As In­dia ap­proaches its 2024 gen­eral elec­tions, the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity will likely be watch­ing closely, with this diplo­matic move by the Sikhs world­wide, adding to the pres­sure for trans­parency and ac­count­abil­ity.