Our Correspondent / New Delhi
INDIA TODAY rejected the United Nation Human rights report on Kashmir saying it is “overtly prejudiced” and sought to build a “false narrative” against India.
New Delhi directly targeted the UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein after he called on the Human Rights Council to set up an international investigation following the release of the first ever UN report on human right violations in Kashmir.
It said the report violates India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Government sources said that to put forth its stand strongly, its representative at the UN would make a separate statement on the matter on June 19 at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“The concerned authorities will look into the motivations which have gone into making of this report,” MoS PMO Jitendra Singh said. He added that the only issue left to be resolved between India and Pakistan was the “retrieval of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’.
The 49-page report – the first ever issued by the UN on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir and PoK – details human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control, and highlights a situation of chronic impunity for violations committed by security forces.
#India should take immediate and effective steps to avoid a repetition of the numerous examples of excessive use of force by security forces in #Kashmir: https://t.co/8SeQ9tlhZU pic.twitter.com/ZiiificTB6
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) June 14, 2018
The report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) asserted “impunity for human rights violations and lack of access to justice are key human rights challenges in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir”.
“There is an urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir, who for seven decades have suffered a conflict that has claimed or ruined numerous lives”, this was stated in a report prepared by the United Nations Human Rights Office published on Thursday.
“The political dimensions of the dispute between India and Pakistan have long been centre-stage, but this is not a conflict frozen in time. It is a conflict that has robbed millions of their basic human rights, and continues to this day to inflict untold suffering,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
“This is why any resolution of the political situation in Kashmir must entail a commitment to end the cycles of violence and ensure accountability for past and current violations and abuses by all parties, and provide redress for victims,” he said.
“It is also why I will be urging the UN Human Rights Council to consider establishing a commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir,” said Zeid.
Noting the continuing serious tensions in recent weeks, including those stemming from a series of incidents in Srinagar, he called on “Indian security forces to exercise maximum restraint, and strictly abide by international standards governing the use of force when dealing with future protests, including ones that could well occur this coming weekend.”
“It is essential the Indian authorities take immediate and effective steps to avoid a repetition of the numerous examples of excessive use of force by security forces in Kashmir,” Zeid said.
“The UN Human Rights Office – which, despite repeated requests to both India and Pakistan over the past two years, has not been given unconditional access to either side of the Line of Control – undertook remote monitoring to produce the report,” a statement issued on its website said.
About the report, it said the main focus of the report is the human rights situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir from July 2016 – when large and unprecedented demonstrations erupted after Indian security forces killed the leader of an armed group – to April 2018.
“Indian security forces used excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very high number of injuries, the report says, citing civil society estimates that up to 145 civilians were killed by the security forces between mid-July 2016 and the end of March 2018, with up to 20 other civilians killed by armed groups in the same period,” it said.
“Impunity for human rights violations and lack of access to justice are key human rights challenges in the state of Jammu and Kashmir,” the report says, noting that the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 (AFSPA) and the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 1978 (PSA) have “created structures that obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardize the right to remedy for victims of human rights violations.”