Chakma-Hajong issue: UN body seeks action taken report from India

India is scheduled to submit its action taken report to the United Nation’s top anti-racism body, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination or the CERD Committee today on the steps taken to prevent and halt any measures directed at deporting or relocating the Chakma and Hajong communities of Arunachal Pradesh.

This includes the special census, the measures adopted to prevent and combat racial profiling or racial discrimination against the persons belonging to the Chakma and Hajong communities, and the implementation of the judgments of the Supreme Court.

On 29 April 2022, the UN’s top anti-racism body consisting of 18 experts elected by the members of the United Nations directed India to submit its action taken report after it intervened against the announcement of relocation by the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh in August 2001, the special census of the Chakmas and Hajongs launched by Deputy Commissioner of Changlang district in November 2021 with a view to deporting Chakmas and Hajongs from Arunachal Pradesh State, and never processing their citizenship applications as directed by the Supreme Court of India in the two judgments.

India ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination or the CERD in 1968 accepting its legal enforceability in India.

On September 21, 2010, India also issued a gazette notification specifying the Convention “as an international covenant in its application to the protection of human rights in India” under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.