No genuine democracy is off limits to probes into serious breaches of human rights law. Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is under Indian occupation and therefore does not represent a genuine democracy. My analysis here dwells on the need to determine better prospects for democracy and human rights in an otherwise daunting climate.
The administration in New Delhi claims that through the (AOA) between the BJP (-RSS) and the PDP we can somehow assume democratic credibility and legitimize the integrity of our laws. That through Article 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution ‘autonomy’ for the occupied state is watertight and guaranteed. Yet draconian restrictions imposed through the unscrupulous impunity of AFSPA or the notorious PSA are indeed cause enough for great alarm and extreme controversy for the freedom movement. Implementing justice is as a consequence fraught with difficulty.
In recent times the Pakistani government, the human rights agency – Amnesty International and, the United Nations Human Rights Council have all been denied access to J&K, as if there is something sinister and illegal to hide or protect. The EU and the UK may now conduct their own human-rights investigations in hope of asserting consensus and authority in an otherwise wayward situation. The mission being to hold an impartial plebiscite and thereby demonstrate to the world our irrefutable objective as Kashmiris to determine our own destiny, our native birth right and the authentic struggle for national liberation that we yearn and embrace.
No two states, in this case Pakistan and India, should have to decide the fate and fortunes of a third (J&K), especially where the third’s own right to self determination takes precedence; a working system, social order and a political framework that will ensure our freedom is enshrined in law and properly enforced and revolutionised in the modern era.
To deprive and disparage millions of disenfranchised, dispossessed and disempowered inhabitants of their democratic entitlements in a nation where a nuclear ‘flashpoint’ is concern to us all, where restraint is urged to de-escalate tensions. Our proposed United Nations Commission on Kashmir (UNCK) seeks the support of Jammu & Kashmir Self Determination Movement (JKSDM) to help us comprehensively address and remedy the turbulent quagmire we all face in Indian occupied Kashmir. The UNCK has at its heart the moral imperative to facilitate dialogue and liberalize diplomacy to prevent any future hostility and chaos concerning this potential ‘flashpoint.’
In the world’s most militarized zone, in J&K our embrace of freedom and democracy is viewed as sedition against the state. A political solution demands the state to demilitarize before we hold our referendum and where in keeping with international standards we can justifiably call it a free and fair crack at the whip.
As Kashmiris we are very grateful to Her Majesty’s Government for hosting the parliamentary debate on Kashmir last year (January 2017), where MPs, ministers and delegates of all political hues meticulously considered working with the UN, to hopefully help establish an impartial United Nations Commission on Kashmir. The onus of this UN organ or agency would lie in circumventing any imposition on occupied Jammu& Kashmir, contemporaneously neutralizing the claim of suzerainty ‘on’ it by the occupying power – India.
It is through institutional obligations, as we saw with South Africa in the worldwide anti-apartheid movement during the eighties, that we can safeguard and guarantee our inalienable and insurmountable right to self determination. We sincerely believe that this boycott is just, that it can work by conscientiously placing concise demands on civil society and concerned governments including on diplomats, politicians, civil servants, lawyers, teachers, journalists, writers, faith/community leaders and other devoted activists working in the field. It is inherently possible to preserve our principles and to take action against the occupation based on human, social, indigenous, cultural, civil, political, economic and legal rights, in light of embracing human dignity, moral integrity and the political fortitude we need to pursue with improved confidence and greater grit the wider interdependent freedoms we consider of paramount significance, ones core to our national liberation in Kashmir.
We can advance on a number of fronts to help ensure the freedom of occupied Jammu & Kashmir, this includes the moral imperative to press our own “EEAS” and “Kashmir Council EU” to monitor and implement a B-D-S strategy against India, in the event it prevents political and diplomatic action or relations from succeeding. This is especially key to safeguard our universal and non-derogable human rights in the event they are endangered or even breached. And, in doing so, to move beyond bilateralism where we give the Kashmiris a lead role in internationalising their own resolve towards independence and sovereignty.
We believe these measures drawn out here are crucial to consider ahead of any future diplomacy with India, before we turn to the UNCK for assistance. Kashmir is a hot potato precisely because it is an ethical question where we risk losing faith in our morality, particularly so where we turn the other cheek and let trade due to neoliberal globalisation dominate and do much of the talking instead. We need to come out of our shell and view the situation at face value.
In building up to the United Nations Commission on Kashmir, I envisage the body will form and evolve as an agency or a functioning UN organ that will require work at the local grassroots as well as through unique high level diplomacy to give it grounding and emphasis. At its heart it will require close coordination between the Jammu & Kashmir Self Determination Movement (Pakistan/United Kingdom) and the governments of the two respective nations to offer leadership and direction.
At the grassroots we need the students to liaise effectively with the BYC (British Youth Council) and the Community and Youth Workers’ Union, to collaborate and work in unison on establishing themselves and to thereby work hand in hand with the both the UNCK and JKSDM. The aims and objectives they thrash out must involve organising a platform for dialogue with the UNA-UK (United Nations Association – United Kingdom) and the UNAP (United Nations Association Pakistan). These two nations, Pakistan &the United Kingdom, as a collective must work to unite their interests by establishing three ‘twinning’ projects. These must be through linking the following UNA (United Nations Association(s)); London with Islamabad, Birmingham with Karachi and Manchester with Lahore. Once we have established these initiatives, we can move on to the next phase.
It is through taking this kind of responsibility, that Pakistan and the United Kingdom can work together to ultimately establish a United Nations Commission on Kashmir, in a manner that will address all relevant UN resolutions on Kashmir and provide the scope to liberate Kashmir through peaceful and creative means, particularly so through providing effective support to our youth to do so. As far as India is concerned its participation is “discretionary,” it can choose to follow us or not, we encourage them to do so.
Although under subjection, Kashmir is a sovereign state, open to all she must remain so and represent herself wherever possible. With the United Kingdom playing a leading role, as a member of the Permanent Five in the United Nations Security Council, she can encourage the United Nations to help resolve the question of Kashmir, a nuclear ‘flashpoint,’ especially occupied Jammu & Kashmir in a comprehensive, pragmatic and collective manner. She also has influence with the European Union and with the Commonwealth, of which Pakistan is a valued and highly admired member, sharing a special bond with our native United Kingdom.
(The author is pursuing Masters In Nelson Mandela Centre For Peace & Conflict Resolution Jamia Milia Islamia New Delhi. His views are personal)
