India’s Citizenship Amendment Act Violates International Human Rights

Authors

Talia Lewis

Abstract

The Citizenship Amendment Act, recently passed legislation, comes on the heels of a very tumultuous number of years, months, and weeks in India. Most notably, Muslim communities and citizens fear the upheaval of their way of life due to the decisions of the Hindu-majority who controls the political actions of the democratic republic. These Muslim groups are not the only worried parties. International humanitarian bodies have spoken out against various recent actions of India’s government. The Citizenship Amendment Act, if considered in the context of other actions by the governing party in India, should be understood as violative of International human rights laws and norms. India is subject to the standards set in United Nations (UN) documents because it is party to covenants and declarations. This paper discusses the formation of the UN bodies, which later promulgated such treaties and declarations. It discusses the evolution of UN human rights law, how it has applied in the past, and how it could be applied to the current situation in India and its enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Moreover, this paper will review the India’s current events and how recent history gave rise to the issues of religious intolerance that exist there, at present. In short, this paper concludes that there is a persuasive argument that India’s Citizenship Amendment Act violates international human rights laws and norms. *

Recommended Citation

Talia Lewis, India’s Citizenship Amendment Act Violates International Human Rights, 28 U. MIA Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 463 (2021)
Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umiclr/vol28/iss2/9