Shireen Mazari presents Pakistan’s case in UN

ISLAMABAD: Indian aggression across Line of Control (LoC) demonstrates yet another violation of International Law by India, said Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen M Mazari while addressing the high level segment of the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council at Geneva on Tuesday.

In her speech, Dr Shireen M Mazari highlighted gross human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir. She also referred the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the massive human rights violations in IOK and said that Pakistan will respond and exercise its right to self-defence in accordance with the provisions of International Law and UN Charter. She called on UN Security Council and Human Rights Council to take cognizance of this breach of international law and threat to international peace and security.

Addressing UN session, Shireen Mazari said that violation of LoC by India is a stark reminder that when internationally recognized disputes are left to fester and grave violations of human rights fall on deaf ears, peace and security issues face serious perils. “The Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir epitomizes this situation most appropriately, she said.

Human Rights Minister said as custodian of the third functional pillar of the United Nations, this Council is vested with both legislative and monitoring responsibilities of international human rights.

She said that resolutions on human rights by the Council have added to the progressive development of international law but at the end of the day the enduring strength of this development will depend upon collective will to implement the Council’s decisions in a non-discriminatory manner. “To be effective the processes and procedures of the Human Rights Council must be transparent and impartial,” she suggested.

Dr Mazari stated that as a founding member of the Council, Pakistan has played an active role and would continue to do so by supporting and contributing to all its processes. “We are committed to promoting and protecting human rights within our country and internationally. My government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan has placed Human Rights as a central pillar of its agenda”, she added.

Shireen Mazari said despite suffering the scourge of terrorism and regional upheavals, Pakistan today has a stable parliamentary democracy, an independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society and an independent media. “Our government’s Human Rights architecture starts with our federal Ministry of Human Rights and goes down to provincial and district levels. Our Ministry has drafted some extremely progressive laws, including a Juvenile Justice Act and a Transgender law which allows the mainstreaming of the Transgender community in keeping with the ideals of human dignity”, Dr Mazari added.

She said both Houses of Parliament have dedicated Standing Committees on Human Rights with legislative and monitoring mandates. The National Commission of Human Rights functions independently within the framework of the Paris Principles. In addition, we have National and Provincial Commissions on Status of Women and presently we are in the process of setting up a National Commission on the Rights of the Child and strengthening the Commission on Minorities. She said the government is now in the process of developing a Human Rights Curriculum for schools up to Secondary level.

Presenting the case of Pakistan, she the Federal Minister said that as a nation Pakistan, has suffered great human and material loss (70,000 lives lost) while combatting the scourge of terrorism. “While we had put a moratorium on the death penalty, the devastating terrorist massacre of 149 people including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between 8-18 years in a school in Peshawar in 2014 led to Parliament’s democratic decision to lift this moratorium. However, in line with our Constitution and in consonance with the ICCPR, the death penalty is imposed only for the most heinous of crimes.”

Dr Mazari further said in order to achieve the goals of national development, Pakistani government is particularly focused on improving the lives of women, minorities and differently-abled persons through key legislation, awareness programmes and enforcement of existing laws.

She stated that important administrative and legislative measures have been taken against hate speech, which leads to instances of allegations of blasphemy and religious discrimination. The landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on the acquittal of Asiya Bibi offers important insights for the government and the judiciary.

Dr Mazari said Ministry of Human Rights has also moved on an anti-torture bill, which is now ready to be laid before Parliament. “We are also moving to criminalise Enforced Disappearances through an amendment in the Pakistan Penal Code and a bill has been drafted.”

She also showed her grave concerns on human rights abuses faced by Muslim community living in some states of EU and urged the member states to raise their voice against human rights violations and plight of human rights of Muslims in Europe where Pakistan also has a large diaspora.

She said the OHCHR, through its Kashmir report published last year, has rightly drawn attention of the international community to the plight of the people of Jammu and Kashmir living under brutal Indian occupation for the last seven decades. This Report has documented human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian laws by over 700,000 Indian security forces deployed in IOK through excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, detentions and disappearances, cases of mass graves, use of pellet guns against women and children and the use of rape as a deliberate weapon.

Shireen Mazari further stated despite the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace and Security”, the international community has maintained a questionable silence on the abuse of Kashmiri women in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). She said Pakistan endorsed High Commissioner Bachelet’s call for urgent implementation of the recommendations of the OHCHR report adding that Pakistan welcomed the Report’s proposal to establish a Commission of Inquiry for international investigation into human rights violations.

Dr Mazari said Pakistan will welcome the Commission to Azad Kashmir but will expect India to do the same too. Pakistan has already received an OIC independent Human Rights Commission in AJK. She said India obfuscates its guilt and crimes in IOK by denying the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory – contrary to UN Security Council resolutions. Given the active nature of armed conflict in IOK, she said that the situation there must also be examined within the international humanitarian law perspective especially within the Geneva Conventions.

She also called upon the Human Rights Council in fulfillment of its mandate, to urge India to implement recommendations of the Kashmir report and grant the Kashmiri people their inalienable right to self-determination through a UN supervised plebiscite as mandated by the numerous UN Security Council resolutions.