‘End harassment against people’s watch, other rights groups’

The Indian government should immediately stop harassing the Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns and it’s program unit People’s Watch, ten human rights groups said on Tuesday.

The government should stop using the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and other abusive laws to silence civil society in India, Amnesty International said in a statement.

The groups are Amnesty International, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

On January 8, 2022, India’s national investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched the offices of the non-governmental organization Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns (CPSC) in Madurai, Tamil Nadu state. Officers from the CBI entered the group’s premises and seized several documents. The CBI officers informed the Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns that they were investigating allegations of fraud and financial irregularities under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, a law that regulates foreign funding for Indian nongovernmental organizations, it said.

The Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns, a prominent human rights organization better known by its program unit People’s Watch, monitors human rights abuses, works with socially and economically marginalized victims of abuses, including by police, and conducts human rights education and training.

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