STATEMENT
41th UPR Session of the Human Rights Council
on the human rights situation in India, as delivered by Ambassador Tine Mørch Smith, Permanent Representative of Norway in Geneva.
Check against delivery
10 November 2022
President,
Norway [welcomes India’s participation in the UPR process and] notes the positive steps that have been taken since the last review, including decriminalising consensual same-sex relations, and the important progress that has been made in poverty alleviation.
Norway recommends that India:
1) increases efforts to enforce national legislation to prevent and combat gender-based violence against all women and girls;
2) initiates legal and other measures to combat hate speech based on religion, caste or community, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and other grounds, in line with recommendations made by the Law Commission of India Report No. 267, 2017;
3) strengthens the capacity of the judiciary to reduce delays in judicial proceedings and guarantee the right to a speedy trial;
4) revises the Armed Forces [Special Powers] Act to ensure compliance with obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and considers reducing the Act's geographic scope.
Thank you.