Today, Kashmiris around the world are observing the 71st anniversary of the United Nations’ commitment that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices. Through this resolution, the United Nations affirmed its support for the realization of the inalienable right to self-determination of Kashmiris – a right from which all other fundamental freedoms and basic human rights flow.
Regrettably, this right has not yet been realized because of unabated repression and state terrorism by India in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K). For over seven decades, human dignity of Kashmiris is being violated on a daily basis in IOJ&K.
The United Nations, especially the Security Council,bear the responsibility to ensure fulfilment of the promise of granting the right to self-determination to the Kashmiris. India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 are aimed at altering the disputed status of IOJ&K and bringing about demographic change to undermine the right to self-determination of Kashmiris have been widely rejected. India’s unrestrained oppression has reached unprecedented levels with the inhuman lockdown now in place for over 150 days.
Each additional second on the curfew clock is a burden on the world’s collective conscience. The international community must act in support of the fundamental freedoms and basic human rights of Kashmiris and urge India to allow the UN Fact Finding Mission to IOJ&K to ascertain the reports of grave human rights violations there. India must allow United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) unhindered access to carry out its duties in IOJ&K. If India has nothing to hide, it must allow international media and civil society to visit and report on the human rights situation in IOJ&K.
In the end, let me reaffirm Pakistan’s political, diplomatic and moral support to the valiant Kashmiri people in their just struggle for human dignity and their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
