Can host meeting in any part of country as G20 president: India

India on Tuesday strongly rejected a statement by a UN special rapporteur (SR) on holding G20 meetings in Jammu and Kashmir and said that as G20 president it is India's prerogative to host meetings in any part of the country.

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the United Nations for monitoring human rights.

"We @IndiaUNGeneva strongly reject the statement issued by SR on minority issues @fernanddev & the baseless & unwarranted allegations in it. As G20 President, it's India's prerogative to host its meetings in any part of the country," the Indian mission said in a statement on Twitter. "We are aghast that @fernanddev has acted irresponsibly to politicize this issue, misused his position as SR to publicize on social media his presumptive and prejudiced conclusions in a gross violation of the Code of Conduct for SRs."


The statement came in response to the UN special rapporteur on minority issues Fernand de Varennes tweeting ahead of the G20 meetings in Kashmir, "Holding a #g20 meeting in #jammuandkashmir while massive #humanrights violations are ongoing is lending support to attempts by #India to normalize the brutal & repressive denial of democratic & other rights of #kashmiri #Muslims and #minorities."

The SR further said, "The situation there has - if anything - become much worse since myself and fellow UN independent experts transmitted a communication to the government of India in 2021. We then expressed our grave concerns that the loss of political autonomy and the implementation of the new domicile rules and other legislation could alter the demographic composition of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, may result in political disenfranchisement, and significantly reduce the degree of political participation and representation of the Kashmiri and other minorities previously exercised in the former state, undermining their linguistic, cultural and religious rights."

He added, "On all counts this seems to be occurring on the ground, in a repressive and sometimes brutal environment of suppression of even basic rights".

The statement was "clearly motivated" and de Varennes was "speaking on behalf of certain quarters", alleged officials.