(May 26, 2025)—On May 26, 2025, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a ruling on the case of Rohingya human rights defender Mohammad Arfat, finding that the Government of India arbitrarily detained him for more than four years without due process. The ruling calls on Indian authorities to provide Mohammad Arfat with reparations, prevent future violations, and cooperate with the U.N. Refugee Agency to ensure his protection and potential resettlement.
In the published opinion, adopted during its 101st session, the U.N. Working Group determined that India’s detention of Mohammad Arfat since 2018 was arbitrary, lacked any legal basis, and deprived him of due process. The opinion finds that his detention was based solely on his status as a Rohingya refugee and that India violated key provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—to which India is a state party and legally bound to uphold.
The U.N. Working Group also recommended that the Indian government provide “compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” for the harm caused to Mohammad Arfat, and that those responsible for the violation of his rights be held accountable, urging the Government “to ensure a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mohammad Arfat and to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of his rights.”
The recent ruling responds to a 20-page complaint filed by Fortify Rights in May 2024.
Mohammad Arfat is a Rohingya refugee, genocide survivor, and human rights defender from Myanmar. Indian authorities arrested him in Assam State on December 23, 2020, physically assaulted him, and convicted him of immigration-related offenses, despite the fact that he is a registered refugee with the U.N. refugee agency. He was detained for years in various detention facilities in India. Although he had already served the one-year sentence he received in 2022, the Government of India continued to detain him without charges until his release.
Fortify Rights repeatedly raised the case of Mohammad Arfat, including directly with the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar. On June 6, 2024, Fortify Rights published a news release in English and Rohingya languages, including a Rohingya language audio version, advocating for the Indian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammad Arfat. The news release also highlighted Fortify Rights’s earlier filing of a 20-page complaint to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Mohammad Arfat on May 30, 2024. In the complaint, Fortify Rights requested a ruling on Mohammad Arfat’s case. Maktoob Media also published an op-ed drafted by Fortify Rights Director John Quinley after Arfat’s release.