Don't let geo-political calculations influence Kashmir issue, Pakistan tells UN council

• Pakistan calls on the world to shun double standards based on political considerations 
• Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari addresses 46th UN Human Rights Council session
• Appeasement or inaction are no options, Mazari says on Kashmir issue

Pakistan has called on the world to demand respect for rights and freedoms of everyone, including those under occupation like the people of Kashmir and has asked that double standards based on political considerations be shunned.

Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari spoke in detail about the state of human rights globally and in Pakistan in a video statement addressing a high-level segment of the 46th Human Rights Council session.

Mazari asked High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to continue with the Kashmir reporting process in exercise of her monitoring and prevention mandate.

Read more: US ignoring religious intolerance in India, pressuring Pakistan: Mazari

She called on the council to consider establishing an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Appeasement or inaction are no options. Doing so will only embolden the abuser. Let us not repeat mistakes of the past but rather demonstrate the courage to stand firmly on the right side of the history," Mazari said.

She said the global human rights landscape presents a bleak picture. 

"Some of the leading advocates continue to prioritise political, strategic and commercial interests over human rights values and principles. Even public calls for accountability of some of the powerful and ‘friendly’ states are conspicuously absent," the human rights minister said.

She highlighted issues of state-sponsored hatred, Islamophobia and dehumanisation of the suppressed, saying that all three are on the rise – often in the guise of “freedom of expression” or “secularism”.

Read more: In letter to UN, Pakistan highlights India's systematic human rights violations in occupied Kashmir

As the world battles the COVID pandemic, Mazari said,  India has used the virus to supplement its tools of repression.

She said India has exploited the pandemic to accelerate the pace of its colonisation project in Kashmir.

Over three million non-Kashmiris have been illegally granted Kashmiri citizenship, allowed permanent settlement, purchase of properties and lands and apply for local jobs in the occupied territory, she highlighted.

Addressing high commissioner Bachelet, Mazari said India’s credentials as a purveyor of state terrorism and violator of human rights are well-established.

This Council must consider the Kashmir situation on its human rights merits, and not be influenced by geo-political calculations, and bilateral economic interests vis-à-vis India, she said.