India’s lost year

Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch takes India to task for its lack of global leadership last year on human rights: Internationally, although India served on both the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, it let opportunities pass to support independent, international investigations into conflict-related abuses in Sri Lanka and Burma. Instead of using ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch takes India to task for its lack of global leadership last year on human rights:

Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch takes India to task for its lack of global leadership last year on human rights:

Internationally, although India served on both the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, it let opportunities pass to support independent, international investigations into conflict-related abuses in Sri Lanka and Burma. Instead of using these memberships to show leadership to protect human rights abroad, India remained silent on even the gravest abuses. While expressing concern about the increased violence in Syria, for example, New Delhi failed to support policies that would ease the suffering of the Syrian people.

“India is now watched closely for signs of responsible global leadership,” Adams said. “Its silence on human rights violations by abusive regimes because of its reluctance to interfere in the so-called ‘internal affairs’ of other countries sits uncomfortably alongside its international human rights commitments and its self image as a rights-respecting nation.”

An awful lot is riding on whether Western-style domestic constituencies for global human rights can be created in big emerging democracies like India, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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