ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday called for “unhindered humanitarian access, accountability, and renewed commitment to international law,” particularly in Palestine and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
While speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said that protection of civilians was “under severe strain in conflicts and situations of foreign occupation.”
He said that civilians living under foreign occupation face prolonged “denial of rights, dignity and self-determination,” adding that occupation heightened obligations of the occupying power under international law.
Talking about life under occupation in Indian-held Kashmir, the ambassador said that despite having lived under foreign occupation for more than seven decades, civilians still faced “massive militarization, arbitrary detentions, restrictions on fundamental freedoms, demographic engineering, and denial of their internationally recognized right to self-determination.”
Citing last year’s UN Special Procedures Joint Communication, the ambassador said that around 2,800 individuals, including journalists and human rights defenders, were arrested or detained, around 8000 social media accounts were blocked, and 64 recorded incidents of hate speech, intimidation, and dehumanization targeted Kashmiris and Muslims between April 22 and May 2.
For the Palestinian people, the ambassador called for “safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access, accountability for violations, and realization of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and statehood.”
He said that Pakistan will continue to support efforts to “uphold international law, ensure accountability, advance peaceful settlement of disputes and protect civilians wherever they are threatened,” stressing that civilians are the very people the United Nations was created to save.
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