Statement by India under Agenda Item 3: Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the OHCHR report on transitional justice, during 58th Session of the Human Rights Council (24 Feb 2025- 4 April 2025), delivered by Ms. Anupama Singh, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, 5 March 2025

Mr. President,

We concur that a process that is victim-centric, inclusive, gender-responsive, innovative, and impactful can only be considered a meaningful transitional justice process.

Our few thoughts:

Too often, the international community has adopted a technocratic, one-size-fits-all approach, that can be damaging. Transitional justice has become steeped in western perspectives, often appearing remote to those who actually need it the most.

There is also a perception that these mechanisms have been providing ‘a form of ideological obfuscation’ intended to ‘divert attention away from those who benefited in the system’. We note that historical injustices inherent to colonialism are rarely the focus of transitional justice. 

In this context, my delegation would also like to express our concern at the concept of ‘revenge violence against minorities’, being mainstreamed by certain reports of fact-finding. This idea is deeply troubling and flawed as it ascribes legitimacy to violence against minorities and also calls them out as the originators of actual violence.

We have also seen ‘mobocracy’, that thrives on the concept of victor’s spoils not being discussed adequately. Ideas like Freedom of expression and opinion should not become selective.

Mr. President,

Reconciliation is a long and arduous process; not to be conceived merely as a band-aid that can be applied to past harms. Without a deeper change in the society, artificially imposed standards are unlikely to achieve any success. Reconciliation within any nation must be not only be home-grown but also home-nurtured.

Thank you.