GENEVA: United Nations High Commissioner (UNHC) for Human Rights Zeid al Hussein declared the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) as a matter of grave concern at the 37th session of Human Rights Council in Geneva, Radio Pakistan reported.
He stated this during a meeting with over 500 representatives of civil society from all over the globe.
Hussein broke UN’s silence on Kashmir when he added it to a formal list of urgent humanitarian crisis in his policy statement in September last year.
He did this after the extrajudicial murder of Kashmiri youth activist Burhan Wani.
The High Commissioner announced this month that the UN will be launching a major report on the situation in Kashmir in June 2018 when the UNHRC will hold its next session.
Last week Pakistan once again urged India to stop killing Kashmiri civilians and allowing United Nations’ investigators to access for human rights abuse in Occupied Kashmir.
Tahir Andrabi, a deputy permanent representative, called on India to stop killing Kashmiri civilians while speaking at the Human Rights Council.
“India needs to end the impunity enjoyed by its security forces and allow unfettered access to UN Fact-Finding Team to investigate Human Rights violation in IoK,” he added.
New Delhi’s denial of access to the UN Fact Finding Team is a ‘desperate attempt’ to hide its atrocities in “the most militarised zone of the world,” Andrabi said.Identifying illegal occupation of Kashmir is the “root of the problem,” Islamabad demanded the UN to continue documenting human rights abuses by IoK.
