Indian govt should respect human rights: Amnesty

India’s unilateral step has aggravated the situation, making Kashmir an internationally recognised dispute

Amnesty International said on Friday that the Indian government should respect international human rights laws and not treat the people of Kashmir as 'pawns'.

At the United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting regarding Jammu and Kashmir, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Kumi Naidoo, reiterated the need for upholding peace and security in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) and said, "The people of Jammu and Kashmir should not be treated as pawns in a political crisis, and the international community must come together to call for their human rights to be respected".

“For the first time in decades, the United Nations Security Council is taking up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Members of the council need to remember that their mandate is to protect international peace and security - and they should seek to resolve the situation in a way that puts the human rights of the people in this troubled region at its centre."

The secretary general of Amnesty further said: “We reiterate our calls to the Indian government to act in accordance with international human rights law and standards towards people living in Jammu and Kashmir, including in relation to arrests and detentions of political opponents, and the rights to liberty and freedom of movement.”

Calling out to the international community, Naidoo also stated that the actions of the Modi-led Indian government had "thrown ordinary people's lives into turmoil, subjecting them to unnecessary pain and distress on top of the years of human rights violations they have already endured".

Earlier, Pakistan’s permanent envoy to the UN Dr Maleeha Lodhi said that the Security Council’s meeting was a testimony to the fact that the Kashmir issue was not an internal matter of India, but an international issue.

Briefing the media along with the Chinese envoy to the UN after the UNSC meeting convened on Friday to discuss New Delhi’s illegal move of depriving IoK of its special status, Lodhi said there was an effort to cancel the meeting and that they were all grateful to all member states for having it.

Dr Lodhi added that all the 15 permanent and non-permanent member states attended the consultative session.

The meeting was briefed on the latest developments and the dismal human rights situation in Occupied Kashmir.