Pakistan has asked the United Nations for a fresh human rights report on Indian-occupied Kashmir. On 15 October, Pakistan's acting permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, put that demand to Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during a briefing of the General Assembly's Third Committee. That committee deals with social, humanitarian and human rights questions for the 193-member Assembly. Jadoon said Kashmiris were still refused the right to determine their own future, in breach of relevant Security Council resolutions, and that curbs on basic freedoms there had worsened since August 2019.
What Pakistan asked
Jadoon pointed to the High Commissioner's reports from 2018 and 2019. He said those reports had recorded serious violations and had called for outside inquiries, for those responsible to be held to account, for rights monitors to be let in without obstruction, and for an international commission of inquiry to be considered. He told the committee that this set of recommendations remained unimplemented.
In the discussion after Turk's speech, the envoy asked when the next report on Jammu and Kashmir was expected, above all a text that would cover the occupied territory after August 2019. He also asked which practical steps had been taken to move those earlier recommendations forward. The High Commissioner's response is still awaited.
What else the committee heard
Turk spoke shortly after the Assembly approved a second four-year term for him. He told the Third Committee that the world was living through extreme volatility, systemic inequality, and armed conflicts that are growing more intense. He noted that conflicts worldwide have doubled since 2010.
He named Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Lebanon, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo as battlefields where human rights protection had fallen away and international law was being set aside. He declared that "human rights are our greatest source of hope for peace, justice, and sustainability."
The High Commissioner heads the UN office that tracks rights abuses and presses governments to answer for them. His briefing was about that global picture. The account of the sitting does not include a reply from him on Kashmir. A fresh human rights report on occupied Kashmir would be a further step, and it is the step Pakistan has now requested. Asking for a public record, and for follow-up on older findings, is the UN role in the Kashmir issue that Pakistan wants the committee to take up again.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 2010: The UN human rights chief said the number of conflicts in the world has doubled since 2010.
- 2018 and 2019: Pakistan's envoy said the High Commissioner's reports found serious violations in Jammu and Kashmir and urged independent investigations, accountability, access for rights bodies, and study of an international commission of inquiry. He said that advice is still unimplemented.
- August 2019: Pakistan says limits on basic freedoms in Indian-occupied Kashmir have made the situation worse since then.
- 15 October: Ambassador Usman Jadoon asked when the next Jammu and Kashmir report was expected, especially on the period after August 2019, and what action had followed the earlier recommendations. Shortly before this sitting, the Assembly renewed Turk's mandate for a second four-year term. The rights chief's reply is awaited.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Pakistan ne UN se Maqbooza Kashmir par insani huqooq ki nai report ka mutalba kiya hai. Ambassador Usman Jadoon ne kaha ke 2018 aur 2019 ki reports ki siparishen abhi tak amal mein nahi aayin. Unhon ne August 2019 ke baad ki halat par alag report poochi hai. UN ke insani huqooq chief ka jawab abhi nahi aaya, is liye abhi amal mein koi fori tabdeeli nahi hui.
