GENEVA (Kashmir English): Prominent rights activist and Chairman of the Kashmir Institute of International Relations, Altaf Hussain Wani, has strongly condemned India’s continued denial of the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.
According to Kashmir Media Service, speaking during the Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order at the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Wani said that despite solemn pledges made by the United Nations Security Council, India replaced those commitments with 900,000 troops, mass surveillance, demographic manipulations and systematic impunity.
He described India’s 2019 annexation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and subsequent settler-colonial laws as a textbook case of unilateralism that undermines the very spirit of multilateralism.
Kashmir world’s most militarised zone
Wani warned that Kashmir has become the world’s most militarised zone, where peaceful dissent is criminalised and journalists face prosecution under draconian laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Speaking on behalf of the World Muslim Congress, Wani urged the Human Rights Council to convene a dedicated inter-sessional panel on Kashmir before its 61st session, re-establish a UN field presence to monitor the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, and ensure Kashmiri civil society representatives are included in future deliberations of the Council.
He stressed that without restoring the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people, the global pledge of a democratic and equitable international order will remain unfulfilled.
