After more than five years behind bars, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) has ruled that human rights activist Umar Khalid’s detention is arbitrary under four categories established by the body.
The UN experts concluded that Khalid’s deprivation of liberty stems from “the exercise of his rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and participation in public affairs.”
Khalid, along with several rights activists—predominantly Muslims—was arrested in 2020 after emerging as a prominent voice in nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which excludes Muslims from a fast-tracked path to Indian citizenship. He has remained in prison since, with repeated bail denials, and his trial has yet to commence more than five years after his arrest.
The UNWGAD emphasised that such activities are protected under international human rights law, calling on the Indian government to release Khalid immediately and grant him an “enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.”
In March 2025, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) submitted a petition to the UNWGAD on Khalid’s behalf, arguing that his detention was legally baseless, discriminatory, and a direct consequence of peacefully exercising his fundamental rights. The petition cited serious fair trial violations, including vague criminal provisions and excessively long pretrial detention. The WGAD transmitted these allegations to the Indian government, which failed to respond.
“This opinion is crucial in a case like Umar Khalid’s, where the authorities have gone out of their way to create the illusion of legitimate detention, producing thousands of pages of fabricated evidence and 29 different charges,” said HRF Legal & Research Officer Hannah Van Dijcke. “The Working Group’s opinion establishes once and for all that there was never any lawful basis for Umar’s detention.”