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In a right to answer before the UNHRC in Geneva, Pakistan questions India’s incessant atrocities against the defenseless Kashmiris. PHOTO: REUTERS
UNITED NATIONS:
As UN Member States begin preparations to draft an international treaty aimed at preventing crimes against humanity, Pakistan on Tuesday drew attention to criminal offenses being committed against innocent people in occupied Kashmir and Palestine.
“Crimes against humanity are one of the most serious crimes,” Pakistani delegate Zulfiqar Ali said at a meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the UN Conference on Prevention and Punishment of Such Crimes.
“No act is more sacrilegious than committing crimes against innocent people,” he said.
“It is with great sadness and indignation that we see these crimes committed against innocent people in different parts of the world, including the occupied territories of Jammu and Kashmir and the occupied Palestinian territories,” said Zulfiqar Ali, first secretary of Pakistan’s Mission to the UN.
“Instead of addressing the historical injustices inflicted on oppressed peoples, their dreams and hopes for a dignified future are trampled by brute force and violence,” he added.
Pakistan, Ali said, unequivocally condemns these crimes and supported calls to eliminate impunity for them.
“Indeed, only by holding perpetrators accountable can we take a meaningful and concrete step toward restoring the honor and dignity of the victims.”
He described the International Law Commission’s draft articles for the treaty as a “useful starting point” but stressed that those on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity – specifically crimes such as slavery, torture and enforced disappearances – must align with those enshrined in the corresponding UN conventions.
Pakistan, he added, hopes that the Preparatory Committee can harmonize different perspectives to ensure that the next Convention is widely adopted by the international community, especially by States that are not parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Pakistani delegate’s harsh comments on the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir prompted a response from an Indian representative.
Luther Rangerji, legal advisor to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, claimed that Pakistan has no locus standi over Kashmir as he said it is part of India.
He also claimed that Pakistan is using the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to divert attention from its treatment of minorities.
Zulifiqar Ali, the Pakistani delegate, responded by saying that India violated Pakistan’s sovereignty by attacking civilians, including children blinded by pellet guns. New Delhi is also failing to implement Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and violating the Indus Waters Treaty.
“The world does not need sermons on crimes against humanity from a country that is a serial violator of international law and the United Nations Charter and a perpetrator of heinous crimes: in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, against minorities in India, against civilians it attacks by sponsoring cross-border terrorist attacks.”
India, he said, is colluding with terrorist organizations to subvert and sow chaos in its neighboring countries and is carrying out international assassination campaigns against political dissidents with impunity.
“Due to an unholy nexus between the extremist Hindutva ideology and the ruling elite, Indian minorities, particularly Muslims, face an imminent threat of ghettoization.”
Rejecting the claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, he said the State is a disputed territory under the terms of UN Security Council resolutions awaiting a final solution.
“The right to self-determination is an innate right of Kashmiris under the United Nations Charter, a right that India solemnly promised to Kashmiris and yet stubbornly denies, in flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
Pakistan, he said, will continue to provide political and moral support to the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people and call for holding a UN-supervised plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.
