Category Archives: News

09Feb/22

Hijab Ban in India Sparks Outrage, Protests

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Students protesting in New Delhi against the hijab ban in some schools in Karnataka state, India, February 8, 2022. 
© 2022 Naveen Sharma / SOPA Images/Sipa via AP Images

Over the past month, several government-run educational institutions in India’s Karnataka state have banned Muslim female students from wearing the hijab, or headscarf. The state government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has backed the discriminatory ban, passing a directive last week saying, “clothes which disturb equality, integrity, and public law and order should not be worn.”

Amid increasing tensions and protests between Hindu and Muslim students around the hijab in schools, Karnataka authorities have shut down schools and colleges for three days. On February 8, as the Karnataka High Court heard petitions by Muslim students supporting the right to wear the hijab, viral videos emerged of a mob of Hindu youth heckling a female Muslim student for wearing one. A day later, according to a news report, admission forms of six female Muslim students at the forefront of the protests, including their phone numbers and home addresses, were leaked online.

The hijab ban violates India’s obligations under international human rights law, which guarantees the rights to freely manifest one’s religious beliefs, to freedom of expression, and to education without discrimination. Likewise, forcing women and girls to wear religious garments also violates religious freedom and privacy rights under international law.

The hijab ban is the latest example of Indian authorities increasingly seeking to marginalize Muslims, exposing them to heightened violence. At the national and state levels, BJP governments have adopted a slew of laws and policies that systematically discriminate against religious minorities and vulnerable communities, especially Muslims.

In December 2021, Hindu ultra-nationalists, many with links to the BJP, held a three-day religious convention in Uttar Pradesh in which speakers openly called for the killing of Muslims. In Haryana state, the BJP chief minister backed Hindu vigilantes demanding that Muslim prayers in public spaces be stopped. Working-class Muslims are often beaten up, threatened, and harassed with impunity. Photographs of hundreds of prominent educated Muslim women have been displayed on apps saying they were for sale, to humiliate, degrade, and intimidate them.

This all comes from a government that says it supports girls’ “education and participation.” It needs to act on those words, ensure that schools are inclusive spaces, and safeguard girls’ right to wear a hijab free of intimidation.

09Feb/22

Ensuring Choice for People with Disabilities in Mexico

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View of the plenary session inside the Senate of the Republic of México on March 22, 2018.

© 2018 AP Agencia EL UNIVERSAL/Alejandro Acosta/RCC

Since the beginning of the 19th century, Mexico has had in place laws denying people with disabilities the right to make decisions for themselves. Now, the Mexican Senate is considering a bill to create a new civil procedure code that would replicate the same system under a different name. The proposal contradicts Mexico’s obligation to ensure full legal capacity for all people with disabilities, regardless of the level of support they might require. If approved, the new code would be applicable across all Mexican state and federal jurisdictions.

This week, more than 250 human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and disability rights activists and experts including three former chairs of the committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) and current independent members of the CRPD committee sent a letter to members of the Mexican Senate’s justice committee criticizing the bill.

As currently drafted, the bill conflates supported decision-making and substitute decision-making for people with disabilities. Human rights standards obligate states to guarantee a system of support for those who require it to make their own legal and other decisions and select reasonable safeguards of their own choosing. For example, the individual may appoint supporters and determine the types of support they need.

Substitute decision-making, on the other hand, allows another person to make decisions on behalf of someone deprived of the right to do so. Mexico’s proposed bill would allow third parties, including prosecutors and officials from the social assistance system, to ask a judge to appoint a substitute decision-maker or guardian, misleadingly calling that appointee a supporter. The bill would also allow a judge to determine how the so-called supporter should be involved in the individual’s decision-making.

Legal capacity is central to other rights: the rights to marry, to decide where, how, and with whom to live, to obtain credit, and to own property. The senate should rewrite this bill and undo Mexico’s 200-year history of denying people with disabilities opportunities guaranteed to others. It should take this opportunity to build robust support systems controlled by people with disabilities themselves and in close consultation with organizations who represent them.