New Delhi: The crackdown on protests and dissent by the Narendra Modi government has been condemned by 24 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR) experts. The experts include sixteen special rapporteurs and independent experts on rights along with chairs and co-chairs of working groups, who have issued a strongly-worded statement on Tuesday, October 23, days after a clampdown on protesters in the national capital and elsewhere.“We have repeatedly alerted the Indian authorities to undue restrictions on peaceful assembly, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and the targeting of student activists, amongst others,” the experts said.The statement refers to police lathi charges, the 7,000 reported preventive detentions and alleged sexual abuse against female protesters who have been calling for the revocation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.It expressly says that the reported actions violate India’s international legal obligations and demands that authorities cease excessive force, rescind blanket assembly bans and refrain from digital surveillance abuses.It refers to student and labour rights activists arrested in March, enforced disappearances and the use of plainclothed police officers to coerce forced declarations and to subject people to ill-treatment, threats and coercion. The experts said:“Despite the non-violent nature of the assemblies, law enforcement agencies have reportedly deployed force against unarmed students, including lathi charges and have prevented thousands from joining the protests.”The statement relies on allegations and revelations made in news reports. “Over the last months, hundreds of thousands of students and their supporters have been gathering peacefully to protest in different parts of the country against Government decisions regarding the education system, and more recently, voter-roll deletions which affect 130 million [13 crore] individuals, reportedly belonging to the Muslim minority, Scheduled Castes and Tribes,” it says.Also read: Explainer: Jantar Mantar and the Right to Protest at a Place Where the State Can’t Easily Look AwayThe signatories include experts on peaceful assembly, education, judicial independence, enforced disappearances, torture, minority rights, privacy, violence against women and other fields.These include the Special Rapporteurs on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, on the independence of judges and lawyers, on the right to education, on the violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, as well as the independent expert on human rights and international solidarity and others.The special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, serving in their individual voluntary capacity. They include 15 individual mandate-holders outside the two working groups, 5 members of the working group on discrimination against women and girls and 5 members of the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, indicating the top concerns of the OCHCR while issuing the statement.They call on the Indian government to “respect, protect and fulfil the right to peacefully protest, and ensure justice for human rights violations reported during these and previous protests”. Their statement expresses “particular concern” about “reports of sexual violence and other forms of gender-based abuse in the protests and related detentions”.The experts also refer to the charge against the Indian authorities that they used Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), the new Criminal Procedure Code, to stifle dissent rather than manage any imminent threat to public order.These actions violate India’s core international legal obligations, including the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, liberty, security of the person, and the right to defend human rights. Any restrictions on peaceful assembly must be legal, pursue a legitimate aim, and be necessary and proportionate.“The covernment must guarantee non-recurrence and uphold the democratic right of students and others to assemble and express grievances,” they said. “Particular attention must be paid to the gender-specific impact of restrictions on peaceful assembly and reprisals against protesters.”The statement also refers to activists and students released from custody only after habeas corpus petitions were filed for their release from detention.It states: In March, 10 student and labour-rights activists were reportedly detained in New Delhi by plain-clothes police officers, held incommunicado for more than 24 hours, and allegedly subjected to ill-treatment, threats, coercion and forced declarations, before being released following habeas corpus proceedings.Also read: Journalist’s Arrest Over Noida Labour Unrest: Allahabad HC Defers Hearing in Habeas Corpus Plea Till July 13The experts called for an independent, impartial, and thorough investigation into the conduct of law enforcement and affiliated forces to be launched without delay to ensure full accountability, justice, and victims’ reparations.Here is the list of the experts.Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.Cecilia M. Bailliet, Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity.Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education.Bethanie Margaret Carney Almroth, Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes.Ivana Krstić (Chair), Haina Lu (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Claudia Flores and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.Grażyna Baranowska (Chair-Rapporteur), Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez (Vice-Chair), Gabriella Citroni, Aua Baldé, and Mohammed Al-Obaidi, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.Elena Carolina Díaz Galán, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.Sofía Monsalve Suárez, Special Rapporteur on the right to food.Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues.Leopoldo Maldonado Gutiérrez, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.Andrea Bolaños Vargas, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders;Pau Pérez Sales, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences.Ana Brian Nougrères, Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy.