UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillai told the National Assembly’s Kashmir Committee, which she met on Wednesday, that the UN will end the human rights abuses that are taking place there. This is an important acceptance that the illegal Indian occupation there has led to massive violations of human rights by Indian occupation forces, but it also skims over the fact that the Kashmir issue, while it has an important human rights dimension, is actually one of national self-determination. …
The attempt to have the Kashmir issue converted from one involving a people’s right to self-determination to one of human rights violations is being orchestrated by India, so that it will claim its sovereign right to deal with its citizens as it wishes, thus having the Kashmiri people counted amongst its citizens. The flaw in this approach is that such a so-called solution would be neither lasting nor stable, and would very soon bring all parties back to square one, with the Kashmiri people once more fully committed to the struggle against Indian occupation and striving for their intrinsic right to self-determination.
The UN should not be fooled by Indian wishes, and must not imagine that its attempt to stop the Kashmiri people from exercising their right of self-determination by converting the question of a people’s self-determination, into one of human rights, will ever be successful, even among the people of Pakistan, who remain comitted to the diplomatic and moral support they have committed to the Kashmiri people.
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