UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 (APP): A top Pakistani diplomat has backed United Nations’ efforts to maintain human rights throughout the UN system and advance its work in this field, as he asked for the measures the world body would take to end the ongoing rights abuses in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
“Human rights are under threat everywhere. We continue to see egregious and systematic human rights violations,” Ambassador Munir Akram told a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly following a briefing on the “Call to Action for Human Rights” by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Noting Guterres’ specific emphasis on “prevention” in his “Call to Action”, the Pakistani envoy posed the question: “I would like to ask the Secretary-General what prevent measures can the UN system undertake to halt the systematic and widespread human rights violations in situations of foreign occupations and colonization, such as in Jammu and Kashmir.”
He welcomed that the UN chief in his briefing had laid equal emphasis to socio-economic rights, besides civil and political rights.
“The Right to Development must become a global international legally in forcible right,” Ambassador Akram said.
“This right is even more imperative in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis and the challenge of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Pakistani envoy also voiced concern at the global resurgence in intolerance, discrimination, racism, and violence against minorities and vulnerable groups, including women and children, as well as the manifestations of violent, nationalism, xenophobia and aggression.
“In this context,” he added, “I would like to ask the Secretary-General what initiatives does he envision to address the pervasive manifestations of Islamophobia, racial discrimination and violence against Muslims in particular?”