Speaking at the 39th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, India on Tuesday, 18 September, said “the world does not need lessons on democracy and human rights from Pakistan, which has not enjoyed any true democracy since its existence.”
The statement was made by First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, Mini Devi Kumar, who was exercising India’s right of reply to the UN report on Kashmir, which was raised by Pakistan in the Human Rights Council, The Indian Express reported.
The real problem in Jammu and Kashmir is cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.Mini Devi Kumar at the Human Rights Council meet in Geneva
“The nature and extent of cross-border terrorism is evident from the number of Pakistan terrorists who have been apprehended by our security forces, the huge amount of arms and ammunition recovered and the continued existence of infrastructure of support for the internationally proscribed terrorist groups in Pakistan controlled territories,” she said.
Kumar, in her address, also spoke about the “absence of constitutional and civil rights” in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and the “large scale repression, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings” in the same.
UN Report on Kashmir
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had released its first-ever report on the situation of human rights in Kashmir on 14 June, where it had called for the setting up of a commission to conduct an independent, international investigation into the “violations”.
The report contained details of the violations and abuses carried out in both the Indian side of the region as well as the ones in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Following the release of the report, the Ministry of External Affairs had rejected it, calling it “fallacious, tendentious and motivated.”
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