Foreigners’ Tribunals have committed grave human rights violations in Assam: Amnesty International India

November 27: Taking a dig at the functioning of the Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam, Amnesty International India (AII) opined these Foreigners’ Tribunals commit grave human rights violations in Assam. Riddled with bias, prejudices and arbitrary decision-making, they pass vague orders rendering people stateless. “For the last 15 years, Foreigners’ Tribunals have wreaked havoc in Assam by arbitrarily denying people their citizenship. They have not been held accountable by the courts, the Government of India and the Government of Assam,” Amnesty International India said on Wednesday in a report titled Designed to Exclude.

Amnesty International India strongly urged upon the Government of India to ensure that the Foreigners Tribunals function with utmost transparency and operate in line with fair trial standards. They must ensure legitimate citizenship claims are not rejected due to a broken system steeped in discrimination. They must be encouraged to include and not designed to exclude.

Amnesty International India stated “People appearing before the Foreigners Tribunals are not afforded the fair trial protections and human rights guarantees that flow from Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, applicable to both citizens and foreigners. This lack of protection has also been endorsed by the Gauhati High Court through its judgments in various cases. This includes reversal of the burden of proof on the person stands to be deprived of his/her nationality, depriving Doubtful Voters and Declared Foreigners of a right to a fair investigation, protection from multiple references, and a bar on extension of deprivation of nationality from one family member to another family member.”

Amnesty has urged the central government to establish an appellate body in processes used to deprive people of their citizenship and ensure that a person is not deprived of their citizenship due to a lack of documentation. It had also suggested that the Assam government should carry out a comprehensive census or mapping exercise to identify all those who are stateless and at risk of statelessness by compiling disaggregated data in cooperation with National Human Rights Commission and other human rights organizations.

The final NRC list of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on 31 August, 2019. Out of a total number of 3,30,27,661 applicants, the names of 3,11,21,004 were included in the final NRC. That means a total of 19,06,657 persons were excluded from the NRC. Those excluded from the NRC list have been given 120 days to appeal in the Foreigners’ Tribunals.

Aakar Patel, Head of Amnesty International India said, “While states have a right to establish principles about how nationality is acquired, renounced or lost, they must do so within the framework of international human rights law.”