New York: Highlighting the plight of Children living under foreign occupation, Pakistan has criticized the UN for ignoring the suffering of Kashmiri children in its report on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, calling the omission completely “unjust.”
Speaking in the UNSC, which met under South Korea’s presidency, Ambassador Munir Akram stated the situation of children in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) had been unjustly omitted this time, despite their current suffering under foreign occupation.
“Generations of Kashmiri children have grown up amidst fear of repression and violence under foreign occupation,” the Pakistani diplomat told the UNSC. He remarked that the report’s most persistent failure and double standard has been its selective omission of certain situations, particularly Palestinian children. It has taken the killing of more than 14,000 children in the current Gaza conflict for Israel to be included in the report this year.”
Meanwhile, Ambassador Akram said, “the plight of children in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), previously included in the reports, has been unjustly omitted, despite their current suffering under foreign occupation.
Detailing the plight of children in the occupied territories, where human rights violations are “tragically routine”, the Pakistan Ambassador said, “We vividly recall the heart-wrenching picture of a three-year old Kashmiri boy sitting in shock on his grandfather’s lifeless body just murdered by Indian troops; we remember 18-month-old Hiba, her eyes ruptured by pellet guns fired by security personnel inside her house in Kapran village of Kashmir.”
According to the envoy, none of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and several Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council have, who asked for access to occupied Kashmir to probe the reports of massive violations of human rights, was permitted to visit there.
The envoy asked the SRSG (Special Representative of the Secretary-General) whether she was able to visit IIOJK during her trip to India. In 2022, the Ambassador said, Islamabad provided the UN a Dossier of 3432 cases of war crimes, including crimes against children and women, committed by senior officers of the Indian occupying forces, with video and audio evidence. “Among these are many cases of crimes against Kashmiri children,” he maintained.
Ambassador Akram said that Pakistan supported the mandate of the SRSG to deal with situations of children in armed conflict. However, he objected to the references to Pakistan in the Secretary-General’s report, which, he said, are “outside of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur”. In this connection, the Ambassador detailed Pakistan’s extensive legal, policy and operational steps to protect children.
