By Betwa Sharma
A March 2026 report by three independent human rights experts, published by the Transnational Legal Clinic at King’s College London, says “systematic discrimination” and anti-Muslim crimes in Assam and Uttar Pradesh from 2022 to 2025 may constitute international crimes, including crimes against humanity.
In his foreword to the report, Report of the Panel of Independent Experts To Examine Information About Alleged Violations Of International Law Committed Against Muslims in Assam and Uttar Pradesh (2022-2025), retired Indian Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Lokur wrote:
“Experts of this calibre turning their attention to India reflects the gravity of what is unfolding. The eyes of the region and the world are on us. The spirit of this age will be defined by those in power—and by whether the Constitution remains a living document or becomes a dead letter for millions. What we do now will determine the nation we are remembered as.”
The said experts are Sonja Biserko (president, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia; member, UN inquiry on North Korea), Marzuki Darusman (former attorney general of Indonesia; chaired UN panels on Sri Lanka and Myanmar), and Stephen Rapp (former chief prosecutor for Rwanda and Sierra Leone tribunals; former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues).
The panel of experts found credible evidence of “systemic discrimination” against Muslims in both states, denying them equal protection and rights in violation of international law, and found reasonable grounds to believe that “international crimes” may have been committed against them.
The panel found that repeated statements by the chief minister of Assam, Hemanta Biswa Sarma, portraying Bengali-speaking Muslims as “infiltrators” and existential threats, and invoking violent confrontation, appear to be “preparing the ground for ethnic cleansing”.
It also identified a pattern of conduct in Assam that “may amount to crimes against humanity”, including “deportation or forcible transfer” through “large-scale expulsions”, a “pattern of hate speech”, “forced evictions and home demolitions”.
And the “systematic stripping of citizenship, legality and residence from Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam may amount to apartheid as a crime against humanity, involving inhumane acts committed within an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination over a racialised group”.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.