NEW YORK, Aug 05 (APP): Pakistan has called on India to stop human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, reverse demographic changes there, and restore the State’s identity by rescinding its “illegal” measures of 5 August 2019 to pave the way for a dialogue aimed at resolving the decades-old dispute.
“The onus is on India to create conditions for a dialogue to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Ambassador Munir Akram, permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, said in his opening remarks at a webinar on Friday organized by the Pakistan Mission to mark Youm-e-Istehsal – the third anniversary of the Indian siege of occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
At the same time, he said that the Kashmir dispute must be resolved on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions that have granted the people of Kashmir the right to self-determination..
“The only legal basis for the resolution of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir is the Security Council’s decision contained in Resolution 47 of 1948 and several subsequent Security Council resolutions, stipulating that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is to be decided by its people through a free and fair plebiscite conducted under UN supervision,” the Pakistan envoy said.
Pakistan desires peaceful relations with India, but New Delhi was heightening tensions in the region by resorting to state terrorism against the besieged Kashmiri people.
“To avoid this obligation and justify its colonial occupation and oppression, India has sought to portray the Kashmiri freedom struggle as ‘terrorism’,” he said, adding that the Kashmiris were campaigning for their recognized right to self-determination and that cannot be equated with terrorism.
Ambassador Akram denounced India’s arrest and torture of the Kashmiri leadership, especially JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, who was sentenced by a kangaroo court, and called for his immediate release from jail where Malik had to resort to hunger strike.
In his keynote speech, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a Jordanian diplomat and a former UN High Commissioner for Human Right, referred to the first-ever report on the situation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir that he authored in 2018 and the one issued by his successor, Michelle Bachelet, saying these two reports along with the recommendations contained in them are very much still UN documents, and must be implemented.
The UN must oversee, defend and promote its recommendations, including the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry, as the situation in the disputed territory has deteriorated, he said.
While there is a general awareness of how colossal the crisis could still be to international human international peace and security, Prince Zeid regretted that the world press attention is often too fleeting, but the two reports remain important.
Pointing out that following the Indian government action to revoke article 370 in 2019, the UN Security Council held closed meetings at the initiative of Pakistan and China, he said, “It’s the rarity of the council’s meeting, which makes me feel so uncomfortable.”
The UN, Prince Zeid added, ought to be discussing these critical issues in all relevant UN bodies, adding there was nothing in the 1972 Simla agreement of 1972 that prevents examination of human rights violations and sending of missions to verify the situation. “There was nothing in the UN Charter which says that certain regions of the world that will be exempted from scrutiny that somehow they are immune from or elevated beyond UN consideration, nothing at all”.
Following the publication of his report, Prince Zeid said Pakistan had agreed to receive UN human rights investigators, but India rejected it outright, and the recommendation for an inquiry commission remain unaddressed.
India’s rejection only shows it is hiding something and called on the government to reconsider, he said. “It is the current UN leadership which should be involved and they must not feel intimidated in any way,” he said, pointing out that too many Kashmiris have suffered are still suffering from gross human rights violations and their suffering must not be ignored as UN officials have a duty toward ensuring that ultimately there must be no impunity.
Representatives of key OIC countries also reaffirmed their support to the Kashmiri people’s UN-pledged rights to self-determination.
They were: Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Al Wasil; the Deputy Permanent Representative of Turkiye, Oncu Keceli, and Tofig Musayev, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Azerbaijan to the United Nations as well as Leyla Aslanova, Adviser to OIC Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations.
Other panelists were: Prominent Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai, and Kashmiri activists like Mushaal Hussain Mallick, Muzzamil Ayuub Thakur, and Ms. Danielle Khan also spoke, some narrating their personal experiences of Indian’s excesses.
In his concluding remarks, Ambassador Akram said, “Considering the continuing massive violations of human rights in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, including the danger of genocide, the absence of any dialogue for the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and the ever-present threat of conflict between two nuclear-armed States, the international community cannot continue to neglect the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the accompanying threat to international peace and security.
“It is Pakistan’s strong desire to have the Security Council, and the Secretary-General, promote a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people by fully utilizing the modalities provided for in Chapter VI of the UN Charter, including Articles 33, 34 and 99 of the Charter.”
A moving documentary on the Kashmiri’s for freedom, produced by the Pakistan Mission, was also screened.
