ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat at the United Nations highlighted the plight of children living under “foreign occupation” in places like Kashmir and Palestine during a debate at the Security Council on Wednesday, saying they suffered violence and abuses in large numbers.
The open UNSC debate was held on the basis of the 2024 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, launched by the UN Secretary-General, highlighted an alarming escalation in violence against children in conflict zones around the world.
The report called for urgent international action to protect children in conflict environments and stressed the need for all parties to engage more robustly with the UN to implement measures aimed at reducing rights violations targeting children.
Ambassador Akram criticized the report for its “persistent and glaring failure and selective omission” of the plight of children belonging to Palestine and Indian-administered Kashmir despite their ongoing suffering.
“Expressing deep concern about the 32,990 verified grave violations against children detailed in the UNSG’s report, Pakistan has stated that children living under foreign occupation, such as those in IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir] & Palestine, are particularly vulnerable to violence & human rights abuses,” the Pakistan mission at the UN said in a social media post.
“Amb Akram said while more than 14000 children have died in Gaza, generations of Kashmiri children have grown up in the environment of violence, repression & fear, stating that humanitarian crisis for Kashmiri children deteriorated after India’s unilateral actions of August 2019,” it added, referring to New Delhi’s decision to revoke the special constitutional status of the only Muslim-majority state under its rule and integrate it with the rest of the Indian union.
Nuclear-armed rivals and neighbors India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over control of the disputed Kashmir region in the Himalayas. Both rule parts of the region but claim it in full.
The Pakistani diplomat asked the UN to investigate and report on the whereabouts and condition of 13,000 Kashmiri youth, saying they were widely reported to have been “picked up” and detained by the Indian forces after August 2019.
The UN sought access to Indian-administered Kashmir in 2016 to monitor and report on human rights conditions, but the request was denied by New Delhi.