UN expert panel asks Govt to compensate Safoora Zargar for ‘arbitrary detention’

A United Nations (UN) expert panel has asked the Indian government to compensate student activist Safoora Zargar, arrested last year in connection with the violence in northeast Delhi, for being detained arbitrarily in violation of international conventions

A United Nations (UN) expert panel has asked the Indian government to compensate student activist Safoora Zargar, arrested last year in connection with the violence in northeast Delhi, for being detained arbitrarily in violation of international conventions.

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Zaragar, an MPhil student at the Jamia Millia Islamia, was arrested in April last year in connection with the northeast Delhi riots in February last year and granted bail two months later. She was pregnant at the time of her arrest.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), in its report that was released in Geneva, said Zargar’s detention went against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. WGAD operates under the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights.

“The Working Group considers that, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to accord Ms Zargar an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” WGAD said in its report.

There was no immediate response from Indian officials to the report.

Zargar was accused of conspiring with others to instigate and start the violence in which 53 people died and 400 people were injured. She had said she was only part of protests and had denied the allegations.

In its report, WGAD concluded that Zargar “was deprived of her liberty on discriminatory grounds, owing to her status as a human rights defender, and on the basis of her political or other opinion regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act”. It urged the government to “ensure a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary deprivation of liberty” of Zargar and to take “appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of her rights”.

The WGAD considered that Zargar was “targeted for discrimination on the basis of her status as a human rights defender” and that her “political views and beliefs regarding the Government’s policies and actions are at the heart of the present case”.

The group also referred Zargar’s case to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur on promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, for appropriate action.