41st Session UNHRC: Intervention by Mr. Junaid Qureshi - Director EFSAS
03-07-2019, Geneva
Text and video of Mr. Junaid Qureshi's Intervention on General Debate Item 5 (Human rights bodies and mechanisms) during the 41st Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Video of Mr. Junaid Qureshi's Intervention on General Debate Item 5 during the 41st Session of the UNHRC
"Mr. President,
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is mandated with promoting and protecting the enjoyment and full realization, by all people, of all rights, as established in the UN Charter and international human rights law.
However, in its first ever Report on Jammu & Kashmir, the esteemed Office has altogether ignored the fact that China occupies more than 20% of my Homeland.
The gifting of the Shaksgam Valley in 1963 to Beijing, by another occupier, Pakistan, violating UN Security Council Resolution 47 and the criminal abrogation of the State Subject Rule in Gilgit Baltistan in 1974, have also not been mentioned in this Report.
The former High Commissioner has not been attentive to what happened in 1963 or 1974, but surely, the current High Commissioner must be aware that China is constructing the China Pakistan Economic Corridor through Gilgit Baltistan, which historically and legally remains an inseparable part of the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
Mr. President,
The utter omission of the illegal construction of the CPEC, which is in contravention of international law and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir, and the continuous exploitation of my land as collateral by Pakistan while mortgaging the future of my people in order to defray its so-called ‘All-weather friendship’ with China, have indebted the current High Commissioner to rectify the serious inaccuracies of this report.
Not only to validate the mandate of this Office, but more so, to re-establish the trust of the people of Jammu & Kashmir in this UN Human Rights Body and its mechanisms.
Thank you".
