Amnesty int india_pr_29_sept_2020

1. Amnesty International India
Press Release
New Delhi/ Bengaluru
29 SEPTEMBER 2020
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA HALTS ITS WORK ON UPHOLDING HUMAN
RIGHTS IN INDIA DUE TO REPRISAL FROM GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
The complete freezing of Amnesty International India’s bank accounts by the Government of India
which it came to know on 10 September 2020, brings all the work being done by the organization to
a grinding halt. The organisation has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all its ongoing
campaign and research work. This is latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organizations
by the Government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations, Amnesty International India
said today.
“The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete
freezing of bank accounts is not accidental. The constant harassment by government agencies
including the Enforcement Directorate is a result of our unequivocal calls for transparency in the
government, more recently for accountability of the Delhi police and the Government of India
regarding the grave human rights violations in Delhi riots and Jammu & Kashmir. For a movement that
has done nothing but raise its voices against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent,”
said Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India.
Amnesty International India stands in full compliance with all applicable Indian and international laws.
For human rights work in India, it operates through a distinct model of raising funds domestically.
More than four million Indians have supported Amnesty International India’s work in the last eight
years and around 100,000 Indians have made financial contributions. These contributions evidently
cannot have any relation with the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. The fact that the
Government is now portraying this lawful fundraising model as money-laundering is evidence that the
overbroad legal framework is maliciously activated when human rights activists and groups challenge
the government’s grave inactions and excesses.
The attacks on Amnesty International India and other outspoken human rights organizations, activists
and human rights defenders is only an extension of the various repressive policies and sustained
assault by the government on those who speak truth to power. “Treating human rights organisations
like criminal enterprises and dissenting individuals as criminals without any credible evidence is a
deliberate attempt by the Enforcement Directorate and Government of India to stoke a climate of fear
and dismantle the critical voices in India. It reeks of fear and repression, ignores the human cost to
this crackdown particularly during a pandemic and violates people’s basic rights to freedom of speech
and expression, assembly, and association guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and international
human rights law. Instead, as a global power and a member of the United Nations Human Rights
Council, India must fearlessly welcome calls for accountability and justice,” said Avinash Kumar.
As part of the Nobel Prize winning movement, Amnesty International India holds itself to the highest
evidentiary standards. Our work in India, as elsewhere, is to uphold universal human rights and build

2. a global movement of people who take injustice personally. These are the same values that are
enshrined in the Constitution of India and flow from a long and rich Indian tradition of pluralism,
tolerance and peaceful dissent.
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BACKGROUND:
CHRONOLOGY OF ATTACKS AND HARASSMENT OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA:
On 25 October 2018, Amnesty International India endured a 10-hour-long raid as a group of officers
from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a financial investigation agency under the Ministry of Finance,
entered its premises and locked the gates behind them. Most of the information and documents that
were demanded during the search were already available in the public domain or filed with the
relevant government authorities. The residence of a Director was also raided.
Immediately after the raid, the bank accounts were also frozen by the ED. As a result, Amnesty
International India was forced to let go of a number of its staff, adversely affecting its work in India
including with the marginalised communities. Despite the ongoing investigations and before the
framing of charges, the Government of India started a smear campaign against Amnesty International
India in the country through selective leaking of documents gathered by the ED, to government-
aligned media outlets. This resulted in a malicious media trial against the organization.
In early 2019, the Department of Income Tax started sending investigative letters to more than 30
small regular donors. Apparently, the department did not find any irregularities but the process
adversely affected the fundraising campaigns of Amnesty International India.
In June 2019, Amnesty International India was denied permission to hold the press conference launch
in Srinagar to release its third ‘Lawless Law’ report on the misuse and abuse of Public Safety Act in
Jammu and Kashmir. It was forced to digitally release it.
On 22 October 2019, Amnesty International testified at the US Congressional hearing on the situation
of human rights in South Asia with specific focus on Jammu and Kashmir since the unilateral
abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India.
On 15 November 2019, two weeks after the testimony and amid rumours of impending arrests of the
organizations top officials, the offices of Amnesty International India and the residence of one of its
directors were raided again by the CBI. The raids were conducted on the basis of a First Information
Report filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs over unsubstantiated allegations of suspected violations
of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. It suggested investigations be launched under other laws like
Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
On 13 April 2020, Amnesty International India called on the Uttar Pradesh Government to stop its
intimidation of journalists through use of repressive laws during a pandemic. On 15 April 2020, the
Cyber Crime Police Station, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh notified Twitter to furnish information about
Amnesty International India’s Twitter account @AIIndia which the organization uses to monitor and
analyse developments in international human rights law and Indian constitutional and criminal law
related to human rights issues.

3. On 5 August 2020, marking the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of
India, Amnesty International India released an update on the situation of human rights in Jammu and
Kashmir.
On 28 August 2020, marking the six-month anniversary of the riots that took place in North-East Delhi
in February 2020, Amnesty International India released an investigative brief on the complicity of Delhi
police in the riots which claimed the lives of at least 53 people, mostly from the minority Muslim
community.
The release of the two publications has provided fresh impetus to the establishment to harass and
intimidate Amnesty International India through its investigative agencies.
On 10 September 2020 Amnesty International India came to know that all its bank accounts were
completely frozen by the Enforcement Directorate bringing most of the work of the human rights
organization to a grinding halt.
For any further queries, please write to: media@amnesty.org.in