Loading…
India has rejected the concluding observations issued by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), calling the references in them politically motivated and highly malicious.
CERD examined India's combined twentieth and twenty-first periodic reports in Geneva on 11-12 August 2026, during the Committee's 118th session - India's first dialogue with the Committee since 2007.
India's inter-ministerial delegation was headed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and drew officials from the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, External Affairs, Minority Affairs and Home Affairs, and India's Permanent Mission in Geneva.
The Committee's observations raised concerns over caste discrimination, violence against minorities, racial profiling, treatment of migrants and non-citizens, shrinking civic space and the National Register of Citizens.
India's long-standing legal position is that caste is a form of internal social stratification addressed by its own constitutional and statutory framework, not racial discrimination based on 'descent' under Article 1 of the Convention.
ICERD adopted by the UN General Assembly; India had been among the states pressing for such a convention as part of its stand against apartheid and colonialism
India signs the Convention in 1967 and ratifies it in 1968
CERD considers India's fifteenth to nineteenth periodic reports - the last dialogue before 2026
India submits its combined twentieth and twenty-first periodic reports to the Committee
CERD's 118th session in Geneva reviews Kuwait, India, Honduras and Finland
Interactive dialogue with the Indian delegation led by the Solicitor General
Committee publishes its concluding observations on the four countries reviewed
Ministry of External Affairs issues India's rejection of the observations
Monitors implementation of ICERD by States parties through periodic reviews, concluding observations, early warning and urgent action procedures, inter-state complaints and individual communications
Provides the secretariat for CERD and the other UN human rights treaty bodies
Equality before the law and equal protection of the laws
Prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth
Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment
Abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form
Penalises the enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability
Creates specific offences and special courts for atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Allows the Committee to receive individual communications, but only against a State party that has expressly recognised its competence to do so
GS Paper II > International Relations - important international institutions, agencies and their mandate; Indian Polity - fundamental rights and rights of vulnerable sections
General Awareness > International Organisations and Conventions
A committee of independent experts that monitors implementation of a particular UN human rights treaty by its States parties
The written findings and recommendations a treaty body issues after its interactive dialogue with a State party; persuasive, not legally binding
The account a State party is obliged to submit to a treaty body describing the legislative, judicial and policy measures it has taken under the treaty
One of the listed grounds of racial discrimination; CERD reads it as including inherited social status, a reading India contests as applied to caste
A CERD mechanism to monitor situations where ethnic or racial tensions risk escalating into conflict