Article: 5th January: A pivotal day for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination
Muhammad Sultan Butt
January 5 has great significance for Kashmiris as on this day in 1949, the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan unanimously adopted a resolution espousing the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN supervision. This historical resolution is the driving force behind the Kashmiris’ ongoing freedom struggle. Kashmiris all over the world observe this day as a right to self-determination day to remind the UN of its promises and responsibilities regarding Kashmir. This day is marked by protest demonstrations, rallies and other events to invite the attention of the international community towards the plight of kashmiris.
The right to self-determination is a cardinal principle of international law that is upheld by international human rights instruments. For decades, it has been reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly in its annual resolution on self-determination.
The right to self-determination is a prerequisite and fundamental which gives all nations and all human beings the right to choose one’s own destiny and live according to their wishes. It provides an enabling environment for the promotion and protection of all other basic freedoms. Due to its irrefutable importance, it has been accepted as a peremptory and universal norm of international law well-established in the United Nations Charter and various international conventions and declarations, thus, binding on all states. However, even with this strong normative foundation, unfortunately, the blatant violation of the right to self-determination in different parts of the world is prevalent everywhere. One such case is the Kashmir issue. India has enslaved the Kashmiris and deprived them of all political, social, economic, religious and all other basic rights.
The Jammu and Kashmir dispute has its roots in the denial of the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris since 1947 – a right that was promised by the UNSC resolutions. These resolutions clearly elaborate that the principle of the right to self-determination cannot be set aside at the behest of any actions by the occupying power, be it legislative, executive or judicial. Regrettably, the oppressed Kashmiris due to the hegemonic and expansionist designs of India have not been able to exercise this right. India continues to oppress the Kashmiris to break their will with massive human rights abuses.
The last 77 years of India’s occupation of Jammu and Kashmir are a sad story of repression of the Kashmiri people. India has unleashed a reign of terror in the occupied territory and denied the oppressed Kashmiris the right to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and lead a life of dignity. It has deployed over one million trigger happy troops who are marauding and brutalizing Kashmiris with atrocious vengeance day in and day out. These brute forces who have sweeping powers under different black laws are committing heinous crimes against humanity with total impunity. Since 1989 these cannibal forces are engaged in systematic genocide of Kashmiris and have killed over one hundred thousand kashmiris irrespective of age and gender in the last 35 years. The brutal forces have raped over 13 thousand Kashmiri women, widowed thousands of women and orphaned over 150 thousand children. In order to cripple Kashmiris economically and punish them for demanding their inalienable right to self determination, thousands of structures have been destroyed since 1989. Occupation forces have disappeared over 10 thousand youth during custody whose agonized families are searching them from pillar to post but to no avail. Besides this, thousands of innocent Kashmiris which include political leaders, ordinary youth, human rights activists, journalists and women and underage children are rotting in Indian jails. India has turned Kashmir into a mourning place and weeping and wailing has become the destiny of Kashmiris. These horrible crimes are clear proof that India want to annihilate Kashmiri Muslims and occupy their land. Kashmiris have not only been robbed of self-determination but all other rights and their existence is at stake. They have been deprived of their identity, culture, livelihood and land.
The latest ploy, taken out of the book of Palestinian occupation, is the forced demographic changes in IIOJK by the occupying force including selective delimitation of electoral constituencies, issuance of fake domiciles to millions of non-Kashmiris, and addition of hundreds of thousands of temporary residents to alter local demographics. All these steps are aimed at undermining the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris and disenfranchisement of the majority local Muslim population of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Since 5 August 2019 after the abrogation of special status of Kashmir, Indian fascist regime is engaged in a vicious exercise of altering the demographic makeup of the occupied territory and turn Kashmiris into a minority in their own land.
Since 1947 many nations around the globe have been liberated and referendums under UN supervision were held in many places including Bosnia, East Timor and southern Sudan but the unfortunate people of Kashmir were forgotten again and again which shows the duplicity, hypocrisy and double standard of the international community. Super powers who claim to be champions of human rights and human dignity preferred commercial and material benefits and ignored humanity in Kashmir. The hypocrisy of the world and Indian expansionist designs have caused unimaginable destruction in Kashmir and have made peace in South Asia hostage. The long-standing Kashmir dispute demands world attention and peace will continue to elude the region until and unless this dispute is resolved according to UN resolutions and the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiris.
Kashmir is the oldest unresolved issue of the world which is a test case for the UN. If the UN wants to restore its credibility then it must take urgent and concrete steps to implement its resolutions on Kashmir. Nearly eight decades have passed but the UN did nothing concrete to implement its resolutions on Kashmir which emboldened India to consolidate its illegal occupation through use of brute force.
There cannot be peace in South Asia and beyond without a just solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in line with the relevant UNSC resolutions which call for a free and fair plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir under the auspices of the U.N. The international community must not allow further erosion of the international framework for the protection of basic human rights. The question is how much bloodshed has to cause and how much destruction has to take place before the UN implements its resolutions. It is time for the UN to implement its resolutions and restore its damaged reputation.
Note: The views expressed are those of the writer, Vice Chairman of the J&K Insaf Party and an APHC-AJK leader, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of KMS.
