Why did the UN committee urge India to address ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crimes’?

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The UNCERD called upon India to “ensure the public condemnation of racist hate speech targeting migrants and asylum-seekers, and condemn racist hate speech by politicians and influential public figures”. | Photo Credit: Reuters

The story so far: On August 25, in a press note, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) issued its findings on India at the end of a review of the country’s recent human rights track record. This session of the committee reviewed Finland, Honduras, Kuwait, and India. The UNCERD said that it was “gravely concerned” about “reports of large-scale violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against ethnic, and ethno-religious groups indigenous and Tribal peoples, including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, particularly Dalits and non-citizens”. The committee said that India’s law enforcement officials had carried out “extra-judicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention without due process, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence” against these communities. India responded with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stating that the Indian delegation, led by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, had “already rejected the sweeping generalisations”.

The UNCERD, in its final observations issued on August 25, recommended that India should “review the Special Intensive Revision [SIR] to ensure ethno-religious minorities’ right to participate in the electoral process and to independently investigate any reported irregularities in the conduct of the process”. It also urged India to “ensure that public officials do not use the Special Intensive Revision process to spread racist rhetoric and take measures to curb incitement to hatred”. The UNCERD noted that since it was rolled out across 12 States and Union Territories, approximately 52 million names have allegedly been removed, with West Bengal particularly affected, where a total of 9.1 million names were reportedly deleted from the register ahead of the State elections that took place in April 2026.

The Committee expressed concern that “Bengali-speaking Muslim voters were reportedly disproportionately impacted by the Special Intensive Revision process in West Bengal and Assam”, where a similar process was conducted. The Committee also expressed concern conflating “lawful Indian Muslim citizens with foreign nationals” in West Bengal and Assam where statements were made by “high-level officials” “which would indicate official endorsements of discriminatory treatment on ethno-religious grounds”.

The UNCERD recommended that India “as a matter of urgency, acknowledge the discriminatory nature and seriousness of the problem of racial discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes targeting Rohingya and Bengali-speaking Muslims, migrants and asylum seekers, and take effective measures to address the root causes thereof and to protect their rights”.