Minority rights.

ON Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to safeguard religious sites around the world, in line with the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution was proposed by Saudi Arabia, co-sponsored by Pakistan and other nations from the developing world, and supported by the US and EU. However, it did not take long before delegates from India and Pakistan began arguing over the status of minority rights in each other's territory. Unfortunately, a number of countries are found wanting when it comes to protecting and preserving the right to life and dignity of minority citizens - and this discrimination is often endorsed by the state and preserved by society, through the passage of discriminatory laws, prejudice and wilful ignorance. This includes many of the governments that sponsored the resolution. For instance, at the UNGA, the Indian delegate brought up the attack by a mob on a Hindu shrine in Karak, KP, to highlight the insecurity felt by minorities in Pakistan. Yet around that same time, towards the tail end of the previous year, communal violence broke out in parts of...