Terrorism a Grave Threat to Human Rights, India Tells UN Council

Terrorism remains a serious danger to human society, India told the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, calling for its continued monitoring to protect fundamental rights.

Addressing the General Assembly in New York during its debate on the Council's report, Bhavika Mangalanandan, First Secretary at India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said terrorism continues to be among the most severe obstacles to human rights, especially the right to life.

She said the Council had identified this threat in its resolution on international cooperation adopted this year. India, she added, would urge the Council to continue paying close attention to the danger, applying a policy of zero tolerance as the situation requires.

In July, the Geneva-based Council passed a resolution calling on the global community to step up cooperation in preventing and countering terrorism. The resolution stressed that all forms and manifestations of terrorism aim to destroy human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy. It also said these acts threaten the territorial integrity and security of states and undermine legitimately formed governments.

Mangalanandan said this position contradicts efforts by certain countries, particularly Pakistan, to draw artificial lines between terrorist acts and to justify some of them.

She also faulted the Council for treating human rights as a “weapon” and for adopting double standards, saying this weakens its credibility. Human rights, she argued, advance best through dialogue, capacity building and genuine partnership, not through politicisation, selectivity or double standards.

Cooperation and dialogue, she stressed, are essential. Country-specific mandates imposed without that country's participation, she said, rarely produce improvements on the ground and instead widen divisions within the Council.

She praised the Universal Periodic Review, conducted every four or five years, as the most suitable mechanism for human rights. Built on cooperation and engagement with member states, it applies the same standards to all countries. Its findings draw on national reports, UN bodies, expert submissions and civil society inputs, rather than one-sided judgments.

Mangalanandan further criticised a narrow outlook that concentrates mainly on political and civil rights while ignoring others. All human rights, she said, must be examined fairly and equally, with equal emphasis.

For much of the developing world, she said, economic, social and cultural rights, along with the right to development, deserve the same importance as civil and political rights. Poverty, debt, and restricted access to finance and technology remain major and immediate barriers to enjoying human rights in many developing countries. These challenges, she concluded, require international cooperation, not pressure or coercion.