Online petition launched to stop UNHRC from dropping Kashmir report
The UN report focuses on violations committed in occupied Kashmir from July 2016 to April 2018
April 03, 2019
LONDON: A leading Kashmiri rights campaigner and lawyer, has launched an online petition to stop the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) from dropping the "UN Report on Kashmir", published in June 2018 recognising gross human rights atrocities in Indian occupied Kashmir.
Barrister Majid Tramboo has launched a petition to hold a panel discussion on the report.
The report prepared by OHCHR through remote monitoring focuses on the situation of human rights in Indian occupied Kashmir from July 2016 to April 2018. During this period there were widespread and serious human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and gang rapes, excessive use of force, illegal draconian laws, enforced disappearances, use of pellet- firing shotguns, arbitrary arrests and detention including minors in the valley.
Speaking to Geo News, Barrister Tramboo said that OHCHR is likely not to take any further action on the UN Kashmir report because of non-cooperation from the stakeholders.
“India has refused permission to OHCHR officials to grant access to the occupied territory time and again because the government of India attempts to hide its crime against the people of Kashmir,” he said.
The barrister further said, Pakistan has always offered its assistance to the international community but that is conditional to Indian acceptance. “The issue of genocide and utter gross human rights abuses exists in occupied Kashmir, not in Azad (free) Kashmir,” he added.
Tramboo added, “It is a conflict that has robbed millions of their basic human rights including their inalienable right to self-determination and continues to this day inflicting untold enormous human tragedy on Kashmiris which is against the very basic norms of humanity.”
Barrister Tramboo was born in Srinagar but was forced to leave the valley with his family living in exile in the United Kingdom. He is well known for running campaigns to raise awareness about the issue of Kashmir in Europe for more than three decades.
