Justice For All Statement on the State Department 2024 Human Rights Report on India

August 18, 2025

Justice For All cautiously welcomes the U.S. State Department’s 2024 Human Rights report on India, especially because this year’s report examined several issues that were absent in previous reports. We recommend more attention be given to the following issues:

Freedom of the Press: The report needs to emphasize the fact that in India, the level of self-censorship has increased to alarming levels. Journalists and media houses are intimidated by the possibility of harassment, which can sometimes lead to legal charges being brought against them.

Prolonged Detention: The report mentions the fact that often pre-trial detention lasts longer than the duration of the sentence. Also mentioned is the fact that 97% of those detained are ultimately released. No particular case studies are mentioned, however, which would have provided a more human face to the problem.

Protection of Refugees: The report paints a generally and erroneously favorable picture of the treatment of refugees in India, even though the country lacks laws to specifically govern refugee policy. No mention has been made of the many instances where Rohingya refugees have faced intimidation, attacks, and as happened recently, were forcibly evicted under the threat of death by authorities and henchmen aligned with the current government.

Transnational Repression: The report briefly discusses the killing in Canada of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the subsequent investigation by Canadian authorities. It also mentions the charges brought against Indian operative Vikas Yadav in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. citizen and human rights activist. The section concludes with a brief mention of Disinfo Lab, which has released several reports that combine fact with unsubstantiated claims and sensational graphics to try and discredit U.S. and other organizations that work on human rights and religious freedom in India. Disinfo Lab’s reports have targeted Justice For All, the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, TwoCircles.net and others.

Human rights abuses in India are real, with many occurring outside of the legal framework. We commend the State Department for mentioning long arbitrary detentions and encourage the inclusion of particular cases in each of the areas of the report’s research for the year ahead.