In its 2021 Human Rights Report on India, the U.S. State Department has flagged concerns over arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judicial killings, violence against religious minorities, curbs on free expression and media, including unjustified prosecution of journalists, “overly restrictive laws” on funding of NGOs and civil society organisations, and “government harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations”, and noted that a “lack of accountability for official misconduct persisted at all levels of government, contributing to widespread impunity”. Most of these concerns had been raised in previous reports as well.
The country reports on human rights, released by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 12, is submitted each year to the U.S. Congress. It is retrospective and contains a country-wise discussion of the state of internationally recognised individual, civil, political and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.
The report on India observed that Indian law “prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention but both occurred during the year”, with police using “special security laws to postpone judicial reviews of arrests”. The report also noted that “pretrial detention was arbitrary and lengthy, sometimes exceeding the duration of the sentence given to those convicted”.
