The UN General Assembly President, Maria Espinosa, has been visiting Pakistan at a time human rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir have reached a new nadir. As expected, when she called on Prime Minister Imran Khan he drew her attention to "the massive human rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir", seeking her support for an early establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate these abuses as recommended by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Later, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed the same concern and stressed the need for implementation of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Kashmir.
As UNGA President, Espinosa's authority is limited to implementation of the 2030 Agenda and maintaining order in UNGA's proceedings. UN rules may not allow her to refer the rights case to the UNSC, which has the real power to intervene. Still, it was important for Pakistan to register its concerns with her so she can use her high profile position to have international opinion take notice of the Kashmiri people's unspeakable suffering at the hands of Indian armed forces. It may be recalled that last year, for the first time, the UN Human Rights Office had issued a 49-page report on the situation giving a detailed account of violations, and highlighting what it described as chronic impunity for violations committed by security forces. While noting that "it is a conflict that has robbed millions of their basic human rights, and continue to this day to inflict untold suffering" the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, had urged the HRC to consider establishing a commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also been expressing his unease over the situation in Kashmir. Yet India has managed to resist an independent international investigation.
It has been able to get away with worst atrocities because of its political heft. Any small country in its place would have gotten a short shrift a long time ago from the Western countries, who claim to be the defenders of human rights as a universal value. Unfortunately, they use human rights as a tool of power politics against rival nations, losing no opportunity, for instance, to wag a finger at China and Russia. But in the case of India, so far there is not a single word of condemnation. If they really cared for what they claim to believe in, by now an independent commission would have completed its investigation into persistent reports of killing of unarmed protesters, torture and custodial killings, and use of rape as weapon of war. Even so, public opinion in those countries needs to be better informed about what is going on in the Indian-held Kashmir so the governments are compelled to take action. Hopefully, the UNGA president will play her role in doing that.