India has expressed regret over the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner’s comments on the situation in Kashmir, stating that they were “unwarranted and factually inaccurate”. During the General Debate on the Oral Update by High Commissioner at the 52nd Session of the Human Rights Council, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Indra Mani Pandey, also made it clear that New Delhi does not believe the human rights commissioner’s office has a role to play in the country’s internal affairs.
Pandey said, “We take note of the oral update and thank the High Commissioner. Since the constitutional changes in August 2019, there has been unprecedented progress in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in taking democracy to the grassroots, enhancing people’s participation in political processes, providing good governance and security to the people and accelerating all round socio-economic development.”
“In this context, we regret the High Commissioner’s unwarranted and factually inaccurate portrayal of the human rights situation in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Let me reiterate that the matters pertaining to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are an internal affair of India and we do not see any role for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in it,” he was quoted as saying PTI.
Earlier on the same day, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stated that he had discussed the “worrying human rights” situation in Kashmir with both India and Pakistan in recent months. Turk also noted that progress on human rights and justice for the past would be key to advancing security and development. “I will continue to explore how my Office can assist, including through meaningful access to the region,” he said in his global update to the UN Human Rights Council.
Turk also commented on the situation in China, stating that the UN Human Rights office had documented grave concerns, particularly about large-scale arbitrary detentions and ongoing family separations. The office has made important recommendations that require concrete follow-up. Turk added that his office has opened up channels of communication with a range of actors to follow up on a variety of human rights issues, including the protection of minorities, such as for the Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other groups.
In his global update, Turk also referred to the situation in Afghanistan, where he said the repression of women was “unparalleled, contravening every established belief system.” He noted that people of African descent in the United States are reportedly almost three times more likely to be killed by police than “white” people. He also referred to the “brutal death” of a 29-year-old Black man Tyre Nichols in Memphis two months ago, saying that this tragic incident stood out not just because of the severity of the violence caught on tape but because it was followed by immediate action to prosecute the officers involved, while generally, only a fraction of such cases lead to those responsible being brought to justice.
Turk also commented on the debilitating debt and economic crisis in Sri Lanka, which have sharply restricted people’s access to fundamental economic and social rights. Recovery policies will need to redress inequalities and invest in social protections and other levers of economic resilience. He expressed regret over the “increasing incidence of political violence” in Bangladesh, coupled with arbitrary arrests of political activists and ongoing harassment of human rights defenders and media personnel in the build-up to the elections this year.
Turk stressed that the world faces the “compounding effects” of crises such as conflict, discrimination, poverty, restrictions on civic space, and attacks against climate activists. “We face all of these crises – while also confronting a surge of new human rights challenges, notably in the digital realm and involving artificial intelligence and surveillance. Fresh thinking, political leadership, renewed commitments, and dramatically scaled-up financing — with the centrality of human rights at their core — are urgently needed.
(With inputs from PTI.)