ISLAMABAD: As the world marks twenty-five years since the adoption of the landmark UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to address the ongoing plight of women in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and Palestine.
Speaking at the Council’s open debate on Women, Peace and Security, Counsellor Saima Saleem of Pakistan’s Mission to the United Nations said women in both regions “continue to bear the brunt of war — from Gaza’s bombed maternity wards to Kashmir’s silenced villages,” adding that impunity and occupation are erasing their struggles from global discourse.
She expressed regret that the UN Secretary-General’s latest report “made no reference to the plight of Kashmiri women, who have endured sexual violence during the decades of occupation, which has been deployed as a weapon of war.”
Pakistan Says Excluding Kashmiri Women Undermines UN Agenda
“To exclude Kashmiri women from the Women, Peace and Security agenda erases its legitimacy and undermines its universality. The Jammu and Kashmir dispute is on this Council’s agenda and therefore, future reports must reflect their plight accordingly,” she maintained.
Saima Saleem cited documentation by various UN human rights mechanisms — including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Procedures, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières — on widespread abuses in IIOJK.
These include “structural impunity, harassment of women human rights defenders and journalists, reprisals against female family members of the disappeared, torture and arbitrary detentions, and widespread trauma of sexual violence and abuse.”
“The plight of Palestinian women is one of the gravest tragedies of our times,” she added, recalling that “seven in ten women killed in conflicts last year occurred in Gaza alone. Pregnant women gave birth under fire without anesthetics or water. These are not collateral tragedies but deliberate crimes that demand accountability.”
Call for Binding Commitments on Women’s Inclusion
Saleem warned of “alarming global trends,” noting a 90% rise in conflict-related sexual violence over the past two years and a fourfold increase in women and children killed. She said progress has “unequivocally stalled and in too many conflicts, [where] women remain the first casualties of violence and the last to be heard in peace processes.”
She highlighted Pakistan’s own contributions to the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, noting that Pakistani women peacekeepers have served “courageously in conflict zones across Africa and beyond — building trust, providing medical care, and supporting survivors where justice was denied.”
Reaffirming Islamabad’s commitment to gender parity within the UN system, she said Pakistan supports the UN Gender Parity Strategy and advocates for expanding women’s roles in peacekeeping operations.
Pakistan Reaffirms Commitment to UN Principles
Counsellor Saleem called for “binding thresholds” for women’s representation in all UN-mediated peace processes, stressing that “peace agreements with women’s participation are more durable.”
She also urged stronger protection for women under international law, accountability for those weaponizing sexual violence, and predictable funding for women-led organizations on the frontlines of crises — “bearing in mind that [women] are often the first to respond and the last to leave.”
Reaffirming Pakistan’s principled stance, Saleem concluded that “the road to peace must be built by women and men together,” urging the Council to turn its pledges into tangible progress.
India and Pakistan Trade Sharp Words at the UN
Meanwhile, Pakistan took strong exception to remarks made by Indian Permanent Representative Parvathaneni Harish, who accused Islamabad of maligning India. “Every year, we are unfortunately fated to listen to the delusional tirade of Pakistan against my country, especially on Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian territory they covet,” he said.
Exercising Pakistan’s right of reply, First Secretary Sarfraz Ahmad Gohar rejected India’s remarks as “baseless,” saying they were an attempt to “deflect attention from its appalling record in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”
“Let me clarify at the outset that in our earlier statement, we did not name any country. Yet, the occupier recognized itself. This self-identification is revealing — for only those burdened by guilt feel compelled to respond when the truth is spoken,” he said.
“The fact remains that Jammu and Kashmir is not an integral part of India. It is a disputed territory, as affirmed by Security Council resolutions, which call for a United Nations-supervised plebiscite. India accepted these resolutions and is bound under Article 25 of the UN Charter to implement them,” Gohar emphasized.
Pakistan Highlights Situation in Kashmir and India’s Record
Gohar said the debate’s theme — Women, Peace, and Security — was “painfully relevant” to occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where “for decades, women have endured the worst forms of violence — rape, harassment, arbitrary detention, and collective punishment — at the hands of Indian occupation forces.”
“In today’s India, Hindutva ideology has become state policy. Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and other minorities are persecuted with impunity. Genocide Watch has warned during a U.S. congressional briefing that there were early ‘signs and processes’ of genocide in the Indian state of Assam and in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he stated.
The exchange marked another sharp diplomatic confrontation between the two South Asian rivals, underscoring how the Women, Peace, and Security agenda continues to serve as a flashpoint for wider geopolitical disputes within the United Nations.
