Amnesty International believes that the 59th Amendment to the Constitution could be used to facilitate further large-scale arbitrary arrests and detentions of political prisoners, notably of prisoners of conscience, and could moreover facilitate further arbitrary killing os political opponents or anyone perceived as such. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a party, prohibits arbitrary arrests and detentions under Article 9. Article 4 of the Covenant permits state governments to take measures derogating from their obligations under the Covenant only in cases of “public emergency which threatens the life of the nation” only to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation” and provided that measures taken do not discriminate solely on the ground of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin. Moreover, Article 4 of the covenant is unambiguous on the point that even if an emergency is proclaimed no government has the right to suspend the right to life of its citizens, in any circumstances. It appears therefore that the provisions of the 59th Amendment would allow for the contravention of India’s obligation under Article 4 of the covenant.