By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, March 16, 2023: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called for the repeal of anti-conversion laws in force in 12 Indian states.

The US federal government entity empowered to monitor and to recommend freedom of religion policies across the world says in its March 14 report that the anti-conversion laws violated international human rights law meant for protection for the right to freedom of religion or belief.

The panel after an extensive study over the anti-conversion laws in the Indian states said, “India’s state-level anti-conversion laws violate international human rights law’s protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief.”

“They impermissibly limit and punish an individual’s right to convert and right to persuade or support another individual to convert voluntarily,” the panel said.

“The anti-conversion laws also worsen religious freedom conditions in India which are already poor,” it added.

The anti-conversion laws lead to harassment, vigilante violence, and discrimination against religious minorities, as well as crackdowns on civil society organizations, the report said.

The panel has also recommended the US Department of State to designate India as a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act.

It has also stressed the repeal of India’s state-level anti-conversion laws as necessary to comply with the international human rights law for the right to freedom of religion or belief and to help prevent the country’s religious freedom conditions from further deteriorating.

“The US panel report on India’s anti-conversion laws reflect the reality in India”, says Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit rights activist priest based in Gujarat state in western India.

“India should not shy away from according religious freedom to its people as it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other International Convents on Civil and Political Rights”, Father Prakash told Matters India on March 16.

India’s anti-conversion laws, the report said, “share three common features: prohibitions on conversions, notice requirements, and burden-shifting provisions” and asserted that those features are “inconsistent with international human rights law’s protections for freedom of religion or belief.”

Elaborating it further the report said, “International human rights law provides that governments may not compel individuals to reveal their religion or belief or changes to their religion or belief through notice requirements.”

“Seven states,” according to the report, “provide that individuals accused of violating an anti-conversion law must prove their innocence” in violation of international human rights law.

Citing the example of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021 it said, “The burden of proof as to whether a conversion was not effected through misrepresentation, allurement, use of force, threat of force, undue influence, coercion or by marriage or any other fraudulent means…lies on the accused.”

“International human rights law prohibits individuals accused of crimes from being presumed guilty,” the report said.

The report said 12 of India’s 28 states have anti-conversion laws and some other states now plan to introduce them.

The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led federal government is yet to respond to the report.

Some right wing Hindu organizations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have demanded to have a national law to contain what they termed as the menace of religious conversion.

India’s Supreme Court is hearing a public interest litigation challenging constitutionality of 11 anti-conversion laws in the country. The case will come up for hearing on March 17.