The finalisation of the NRC coincided with the halfway mark of UNHCR’s iBelong Campaign to end statelessness by 2024. It came just 37 days before state representatives are to congregate at the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in Geneva, to make further pledges towards ending statelessness. We call on all states and institutions of the international community to use the platform provided by the High-Level Segment to call out India’s arbitrary and discriminatory actions and to recapture the spirit in which the right to nationality was first included in the canon of human rights – as a safeguard against inhuman horrors. Although the lives and years lost can never be reclaimed, it is still not too late to reverse what now seems an inevitable outcome of mass-disenfranchisement. But it will require extraordinary political leadership within Assam, India and globally, particularly in a context in which the politics of demonization are taking centre stage. It is for the people of the world to provide moral direction to their representatives and demand better of them. And so, as members of the global community, we join our voices to demand better of states and of the UN. The international human rights standards that bind us together by protecting us all, demand that governments and multilateral institutions take bold action. The exercise of collective responsibility in defence of human rights is critical to averting a crisis manufactured by one country, which has global significance and resonance. In particular, we urge the international community to exert pressure on India to: 1. bring this process to a closure in a nondiscriminatory and non-arbitrary manner, with full regard to due process rights and a commitment to protect the right to a nationality and to avoid statelessness of all long-term residents and their children; 2. prevent detention, deportation, degrading treatment, incitement to violence, collective punishment, and other forms of human rights abuses; 3. ensure justice for those victimised by the arbitrary and discriminatory procedure; 4. facilitate a process of dialogue and community building; and 5. assist individuals affected by the NRC process through support to legal aid providers, humanitarian assistance, and other measures. 5 September 2019 Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) FAWE (Madagascar) Focus Development Association (Madagascar) Foreign Spouses Support Group (FSSG) (Malaysia) Forum for Women In Development (FWID) Foundation for Access to Rights (FAR) (Bulgaria) FTMF Fikambanan’ny Tanora Mandala fahamarinana mba ho fampandrosoana ny Firenena Fundación Cepaim Acción Integral con Migrantes Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights Greek Forum of Refugees Haki Centre Organization (Kenya) Halina Nieć Legal Aid Center (Poland) Hazards Centre (India) Human Rights Defenders Association (India) Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa (Canada) INHURED International Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) International Commission of Jurists International Detention Coalition International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) International Human Rights Clinic, Inter-American University of Puerto Rico International Justice Mission International Observatory of Human Rights International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) Kenya Human Rights Commission KMF/CNOE- Fanabeazana Olompirenena - Comité National d’Observation des Elections- Educations des Citoyens Law Center of Advocates (Republic of Moldova) Lawyers for Human Rights (South Africa) Lawyers for Liberty (Malaysia) Liberty 32 (Madagascar) Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) Malaysian Association of Integrated Traditional Indian Medicine (PEPTIIM) Maragoli Community Association (Uganda) Minority Rights Group International Minority Rights Organization (Cambodia) Mother Association for Rights and Development (MARD) Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains (MIDH) Movimiento Reconoci.do (Dominican Republic) Namati Naripokkho (Bangladesh) Observatory Caribbean Migrants (OBMICA) Odhikar (Bangladesh) ONG Ravintsara Open Society Justice Initiative Our Journey (Malaysia) Parivartan (Golaghat Assam, India) Peace Centre (South Africa) People’s Legal Aid Centre (Sudan) Persatuan Penasihat Pengguna (Malaysia)

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