UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan on Wednesday called on the UN Human Rights Council to address the massive rights violations in Gaza and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, told the United Nations General Assembly that human rights must be promoted comprehensively and in a balanced manner.
He underlined the need for avoiding selectivity and double standards in the 47-member Council’s approach.
Speaking in a debate on the annual report of the President of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the diplomat said that it must address the massive human rights violations which take place in situations of foreign intervention and occupation.
He said that the heart-wrenching slaughter that is taking place in Gaza and occupied Palestine is visible on the television screens today. Israel has enjoyed impunity for these violations for over fifty years. The envoy said that the massive violations in IIOJK are also well recorded.
In both instances, he said, the occupying powers — Israel and India — have sought to suppress the legitimate national freedom struggles under the guise of combating terrorism.
He further said that the most recent conflict in the Middle East (Israel-Palestine war) illustrates the danger of allowing the persistence of foreign occupation.
Pakistani Envoy Highlights Other Issues
At the same time, the diplomat urged for a “much more robust effort” to counter the rise of religious supremacy, racial hatred, and extreme and violent nationalism and fascism in certain parts of the world.
Akram said that Islamophobia is a major element of the new phenomena manifested in the discrimination and attacks against Muslims, hijab ‘bans’, the repeated desecration of the Holy Quran, blasphemous caricatures, and the vandalization of Islamic holy sites and symbols. But such acts cannot be allowed under the cover of freedom of expression.
