UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 (APP): Two Pakistani delegates in the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee, participating in separate discussions, spotlighted India’s human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir, urging the UN to hold India accountable for violating international law.
The committee deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues and is currently holding interactive sessions on promotion and protection of human rights.
On Thursday, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, acting permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, during an Interactive Dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said India has been violating basic human rights principles.
“For over seven decades,” he said, “in contravention of numerous Security Council resolutions, the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been denied their inalienable right to self-determination.”
Since 5th August 2019, Ambassador Jadoon said, India has incarcerated Kashmiri political leadership; torturing many of them; extra-judicially killed hundreds of young Kashmiri boys; used rape as a weapon of war; put down peaceful protests violently, blinding even young children with pellet guns; imposed collective punishments, by demolishing and burning entire neighborhoods and villages; and curtailed the freedom of religion and expression.
India’s belligerent actions were well documented in the High Commissioner for Human Rights reports in 2018 and 20/19, the Pakistani envoy said, as he demanded a third one depicting the current situation.
“The failure to hold India accountable for its human rights abuses is undermining the credibility of UN human rights machinery,” Ambassador Jadoon added.
Speaking in an Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Pakistani delegate Saima Saleem drew attention to the Rapporteur’s report noting that torture is increasingly employed by both State and non-State actors with impunity.
“This trend demands not only condemnation but concrete action: effective prevention mechanisms, independent oversight, and credible accountability for perpetrators,” said Ms. Saleem, a counselor in the Pakistan Mission to the UN.
In this regard, she said that the report’s reference to “credible allegations of coercion, forced confessions, and torture in India is deeply worrying.
“These findings mirror the persistent pattern of abuse in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and ordinary civilians, including women and children, face arbitrary detention, sexual torture, custodial torture, and collective punishment,” the Pakistani delegate said, adding that such actions must be subject to impartial investigation and accountability.
Pakistan, she added, remains committed to upholding the absolute prohibition of torture, strengthening international mechanisms for prevention, and ensure that the dignity and rights of all peoples — especially those living under conflict and occupation are protected and upheld.