New United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday praised India’s Supreme Court for decriminalising homosexuality, but criticised the country for not addressing problems highlighted in its June report on alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.
“I hail last week’s decision by the [Indian] Supreme Court to decriminalise same-sex relations,” Bachelet said in her first address to the United Nations Human Rights Council. “Laws that criminalise consensual adult relationships are, as Chief Justice [Dipak] Misra said, manifestly arbitrary and a source of discrimination and harassment.” She called on other countries to “follow India’s example in this respect”.
However, Bachelet criticised the Indian government for the lack of any “meaningful improvements, or even open and serious discussions” in the human rights situation in Kashmir following the report prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The people of Kashmir have exactly the same rights to justice and dignity as people all over the world, and we urge the authorities to respect them,” she said. She said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will continue to request for access to both sides of the Line of Control.
In June, the Indian government urged the United Nations to reject the report. The government described the report on Kashmir as showing a “clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information”. The Ministry of External Affairs said the report violated India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also described the report as “fallacious, tendentious and motivated”.
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