Imtiaz Gul
In what could be described only as a brazen political expedience and default on UK’s primary responsibility towards human rights under the UN Human Rights Charter, Dominic Raab MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, recently referred to seven human rights situations around the world including Myanmar, Belarus, Russia, China, Syria, South Sudan and Sri Lanka, but skipped on a situation as grave as Jammu and Kashmir.
This he did at the 46th session of Human Rights Campaign (HRC) held on February 22, 2021. Kashmir was a stunning omission from Raab’s list of human situations in different parts of the world, particularly what Kashmiris under the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) have undergone since August 5, 2019, when the Government of India revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The people of the valley have faced grave physical and emotional atrocities by the Indian Armed Forces. The Indian security forces, recorded to be between up to 700,000 in paragraph 40 of the June 2018 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report, was raised to 900,000 on or around August 5, 2019. On the political and diplomatic front, India assailed the people , incarcerated thousands including first and second tier political leadership for months, committed a cultural incursion and instigated a political wreckage by ending the State Legislative Assembly elected by the people. It placed Kashmir under physical as well as digital lockdown until recently.
Strange that UK’s ministers fail to recognize this as a “human rights’ situation.” If not this, what else would qualify as a graver human rights situation.
That is why the Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR) took upon itself to officially lodge lodge a grievance highlighting UK’s need to realign its posture on the question of its obligations for the promotion and Protection of Human Rights. As ignoring such grave human rights violations will eventually lead to an increase in the frequency of such activities, since it gives the aggressors a hint that it is easy to get away with such criminal activities.
In a letter to Secretary Raab a day later, Dr.Nazir Gilani , president of JKHRC drew attention to the grave condition prevailing in Kashmir under the Indian control and expressed “great disappointment to see Britain failing to add the people and habitat of Kashmir to its ‘priority list’ in the statement made at the 46th Session of Human Rights Council.”
“I would respectfully wish to lodge this grievance and point out that like the new Biden administration in the US, Britain needs to re-set its compass on the question of its obligations for the promotion and Protection of Human Rights. We hope that Britain will live up to its statement that “We will continue to speak up in this Council for what is right. And we will continue to back up our words with actions,” Gilani wrote, urging him to look into 11 documents from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which testify to UK’s past support on all issues concerning the Indian occupation of Kashmir and its people. They include
# Resettlement Bill of 1982” in respect of 2.5 million Kashmiri refugees housed in the four provinces of Pakistan and recognised in para 14 (a) of UN SC Resolution 47 of 21 April 1948
# The State Autonomy Committee Report” of July 2000, “Hurriet Constitution” of July 1993,
#Gupkar Declaration” of 4 August 2019, details of the “Five Working Groups on Kashmir” constituted by Prime Minister of India in May 2006,
#Common minimum program” agreed upon by PDP and BJP in March 2014, Resolution L40 brought against India at the UN Human Rights Commission,
# Resolution L21 brought against India by the British Expert at the UN Sub Commission on Human Rights,
# The report compiled by APPG on Kashmir,
# JKCHR Written Statements released as UN General Assembly Documents on Kashmir,
# Report by a 6 member delegation of FIDH launched at the House of Commons,
# UN Security Council Resolution 91 of 30 March 1951,
All the aforementioned documents essentially include recorded UK support for the Kashmir cause and hence Kashmir’s omission by secretary Raab has incensed all Kashmiris, who believe they are being wronged also by the oldest democracy because of geo-political and commercial interests.
The JKHRC letter to Minister Raab explains that United Kingdom’s negligence towards the human rights is an excellent example of how geopolitics transforms state behavior and narrative. Though UK has been vocal about the rights of the Kashmiris in the past, it exhibited a shift in its stance on Kashmir as its earlier stance isn’t helpful for achieving its vested interests in South Asia, particularly India.
