Sikhs file 1984 genocide petition at the UN in Geneva

Who: Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a New York-based group, with the Movement Against Atrocities and Repressions (MAR), the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and gurdwara committees from Europe and North America. The delegation included Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, SFJ's legal adviser, and Jatinder Singh Grewal, its policy director. On 21 October 2013 Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh had directed Sikh groups to file the petition in Geneva on 1 November.

What: The petition, titled "1984: Yes, it's genocide", carried about one million signatures, according to the organisers. It asked the UN to investigate the killings of Sikhs across India in the first week of November 1984 and to recognise them as genocide under the UN Genocide Convention. A delegation filed it at the UN human rights office in Geneva and held talks with officials. The Jathedar said that thousands of Sikhs were killed in November 1984, that no one involved had been prosecuted, and that there was no hope of justice from the existing system. A rally outside the UN drew Sikhs from Europe, North America, India, Hong Kong and Australia. Organisers said 10,000 attended and police said 4,000.

Indian diplomats in Geneva declined to comment on the petition. They told AFP that India's position was well known and that its justice system had dealt with the matter. The Indian government acknowledges about 3,000 Sikh deaths in Delhi between 1 and 3 November 1984 and describes the violence as "communal rioting". Sikh activists say that the killings spread across the country and that the toll was above 30,000.

Where: Geneva, Switzerland, at the UN's Geneva base.

Why it mattered: The petition took the demand for the word genocide outside India's courts, 29 years after the Tesra Ghallughara of November 1984 (a name Sikhs also give to the June 1984 attack on Sri Darbar Sahib), and put it in front of the UN. SikhNet described the rally as one of the biggest ever held before the UN in Geneva. None of the reports on the filing records a UN decision, so its weight lies in the case it set down and the signatures it gathered. It is one step in the long campaign to have November 1984 recognised as genocide.