Mr. President,

Pakistan views all human rights as equal and indivisible, to be treated with similar attention and emphasis. The Right to self determination is enshrined in the foundational documents of the international community – the UN Charter and other International Covenants. Without this right, all other rights are illusory.  In the last seven decades, Right to self determination galvanized the drive of Decolonization and inspired newly independent states to adopt policies of national choice and non-alignment.

          The OHCHR Report on Kashmir highlights violations of civil, political, economic and cultural rights in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoK). The Report documents magnitude of crimes against humanity perpetrated by India in Kashmir. At heart of this situation is the negation of the Right to self determination promised to the Kashmiri people not only by UN Security Council but also by the first Prime Minister of India and one of its founding father. This promise was never fulfilled.

On the contrary, India illegally occupied the territory based on a fraudulent instrument of accession and a disputed decision of a puppet regime. The fraudulent instrument of accession, as a document, does not exist.

The decision of the puppet regime flouts UN Security Council Resolution 122 which clearly stipulates that no local decision on Kashmir’s future disposition can be admissible as the substitute of a UN supervised plebiscite to determine the will of Kashmiri people.

These legal facts, duly verifiable by the UN records, counter India’s self-serving claims that Kashmir is its integral part and calling it a dispute is an infringement on its sovereignty. This also is the legal position of the international community and the UN, which India cannot unilaterally alter.

          India also endeavours to subsume the Kashmiri struggle for the Right to determination as terrorism. Thousands of protestors who throng the streets of Occupied Kashmir, turn up at funeral processions or get blinded by pallet guns fired by Indian soldiers are not terrorists.  India should not hide behind the global concerns on terrorism to justfy its own atrocities or to discredit the UN. The Commission of Inquiry called for by the OHCHR report, gives India a platform to prove its point. Pakistan has welcomed the Commission. India should also accept the Commission for the truth to prevail.

India should also implement OHCHR’s recommendation to uphold all rights of Kashmiri people including the right to self determination of the Kashmiri people. The fulfilment of these rights is essential to end the plight of the Kashmiri people and to promote regional and international peace and security.

I thank you