Sikh Community's Global Plea: UNHRC Must Confront India’s Systematic Oppression

As the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) approaches, the Sikh community in France is preparing to break decades of silence and expose India’s state-backed crimes against Sikhs to the world. In a formal letter addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG), the Sikh community is urging global intervention to halt India’s ongoing persecution of Sikhs and to demand the protection of their fundamental rights and religious freedoms.

For too long, the stories of Sikh suffering have been drowned out by the deafening silence of international indifference. But the Sikh community’s plea is not just for acknowledgment—it is a desperate call for justice, an appeal to the international community to hold India accountable for crimes that remain unpunished for over four decades.

At the heart of this plea lies the haunting memory of one of the darkest chapters in recent history—the 1984 anti-Sikh massacres. In Haryana, 36 innocent Sikhs were brutally murdered. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence and a commission led by Justice T.P. Garg, no one has been held accountable. Instead, the perpetrators continue to walk free, protected by the very state that orchestrated their violence. The petition for justice remains deliberately stalled in the Haryana High Court, ensuring that these atrocities are swept under the rug, while the victims’ families are left to suffer in silence.

The suffering of the Sikh community is not confined to a tragic moment in time. It has been perpetuated by India’s cruel imprisonment of Sikh youth who dared to demand justice. For decades, young Sikhs have been incarcerated for protesting against the state’s treatment of their community. Left to rot in prison, many have been behind bars for 30 to 40 years, abandoned by a judicial system that is complicit in their suffering.

This is a chilling message: In India, Sikhs who seek justice are silenced, while those responsible for their suffering are rewarded. But the persecution extends beyond the prison cells. The Modi government’s war on Sikh autonomy has taken on a more insidious form—an attack on Punjab’s agrarian economy and its water resources.

The ongoing push for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal project is the latest chapter in India’s economic warfare against the Sikh community. The SYL project threatens to drain Punjab’s precious water resources, a direct assault on the livelihood of Sikh farmers. Punjab’s agrarian economy, already struggling under the weight of systemic neglect, faces further devastation as the state’s water supply is diverted away, leaving farmers economically crippled and the land environmentally ruined.

The Sikh community’s plea to the UN is not only about addressing past wrongs but preventing further atrocities. It is about ensuring that India is held accountable for its genocidal actions, systematic discrimination, and economic assault on the people of Punjab. It is about making sure the Sikh struggle is not erased, that the global community finally hears the voices of those who have been suffering in silence for far too long.

India’s oppression of Sikhs is not an isolated incident or an internal matter—it is a global human rights crisis. The UN must act now, before history repeats itself. The world cannot afford to normalize India’s state-sponsored persecution of Sikhs, and the UNHRC must not ignore the Sikh community’s call for justice.

As the 58th session of the UNHRC gets underway, the Sikh community in France is demanding that the world’s leaders stand in solidarity with the victims of India’s systematic oppression. The UN must ensure that the crimes committed against Sikhs are exposed, that those responsible are held accountable, and that Sikh religious freedom and autonomy are safeguarded for generations to come.

The time for silence is over. The time for action is now.