United Nations: India called out the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHR) for its “double standards” and “extreme selectivity” in reporting the government responses to popular protests across the world.
“Violent responses to protests in our neighbourhood, as well as in the West, have gone uncommented” in the reports by High Commissioner Volker Turk, said Anuj Swarup, a first secretary in India’s UN Mission in Geneva, Wednesday (Local time).
India notes “that OCHR has an approach of extreme selectivity”, he said at the General Assembly’s Third Committee meeting in New York.
“Needless to say, such double standards contribute to loss of trust in multilateralism and the work of OCHR,” he warned.
He spoke after the committee, which deals with social and humanitarian matters, had a briefing from Turk.
Swarup, however, said that as a member of the Human Rights Council, “India will continue to work with the High Commissioner and OCHR in a spirit of trust and partnership without selectivity and double standards”.
“Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of non-violence and equality shaped India’s Constitution that guarantees fundamental rights to every citizen,” he said.
“Indian citizens exercise rights subject to maintenance of public order and safety and our law enforcement authorities act strictly in accordance with the law, and our courts remain available for redressal of any grievance,” he said.
Rebutting criticism of New Delhi, Swarup said, “Like all other regions of India, the Indian Constitution bestows the same fundamental rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, an integral and inalienable part of India”.
Although Turk and OCHR have issued detailed statements on the dire situation in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and made many demands of Islamabad, Swarup asked, “When can we expect OCHR to issue a report on the steps taken by the government of Pakistan?”
Calling for a follow-up from OCHR, he said it had asked for “prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into killings that have occurred at the hands of the armed forces and security forces”, the release of detained leaders of Awami Action Committee in Pakistan-held Kashmir, access for them to legal representation and their families, and due process and fair trials.
Turk and OCHR have also called for due process and fair trials, and for meaningful political dialogue to address grievances of the local population, and the lifting of restrictions on internet access throughout Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he said, wondering if there would be a follow-up.
Swarup dismissed attempts by a Pakistani delegate during the meeting to bring up Kashmir.
“Pakistan would do well to look inwards and reflect on how such rights are not being enjoyed in its large part, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and, for that matter, in Rawalakot which is under its illegal occupation,” he said.
The military-backed government in Islamabad dismissed the elected government of the province’s Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) this week and detained him this week.
PTI’s leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan was not allowed to contest national elections and is imprisoned.
Rawalakot is the centre of protests by Kashmiris in the Pakistan-occupied part, where, according to human rights organisations, over 90 people have been killed by Islamabad’s forces as they brutally put down protests against importing people from elsewhere to manipulate elections, and against exploitation of natural resources.
