India on Tuesday said the report prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation in Kashmir showed a “clear bias” and was not fit to be considered by members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, where it has been submitted.
India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Tanmaya Lal said the “so-called” report on Jammu and Kashmir reflects the “clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information”, PTI reported.
On June 14, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued its first report on the situation in Kashmir, in which it detailed alleged human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control. The Ministry of External Affairs said the report violated India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also described the report as “fallacious, tendentious and motivated”.
On June 19, India urged the UN to reject the report, saying it “undermines the UN-led consensus on terrorism and legitimises terrorism by referring to UN designated terrorist entities as ‘armed groups’.”
Lal’s statement was in response to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi referring to the report on Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir during a security council debate on children and armed conflict on Monday.
“Such deliberate self-serving attempts by Pakistan seek to obfuscate the reality of their own use of terror organisations to undermine state sovereignty,” Lal said. “Such attempts have not succeeded in the past in any forum and will not do so now.”
This is the third time Pakistan has brought up the Kashmir issue at the UN session in New York. India had condemned Pakistan’s reference, saying that no amount of empty rhetoric” by Islamabad will change the reality that Kashmir was an “inalienable” part of India. India also said that Pakistan was a “hub of terrorism” and was attempting to spread a false narrative about Kashmir.
Debate on Children and Armed Conflict
India also said it was disappointed by UN chief Antonio Guterres’ report on children and armed conflict, released in May, saying it included situations that do not meet the definitions of armed conflict or of threat to international peace and security.
The report mentions that children continued to be affected by incidents of violence between armed groups and the government, particularly in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The report also states that the United Nations still receives reports of the recruitment and use of children, including by the Naxals, particularly in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Tanmaya Lal, who participated in the United National Security Council debate on Children and Armed Conflict on Monday, said a lot needs to be done, especially in keeping with the changing nature of armed conflicts that involves a range of non-state actors.
He also spoke about the lack of resources to implement provisions of the United Nations Security Council mandate, including the deployment of Child Protection Advisors and to comprehensively address the connection between conflict prevention and the protection of children.
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