Former Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed Khan has proposed to approach the UN Secretary General for appointment of an eminent person of international standing like Bishop Desmond Tutu or President Jimmy Carter or President Mary Robinson as his special envoy on Kashmir.
He said UN's human rights agencies, notably the Human Rights Council, Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as well as other international agencies including ICRC, Amnesty International and International Crisis Group must remain engaged to monitor the on-ground situation in Indian-held Kashmir.
As one of the oldest unresolved international conflicts, Kashmir today is a somber reminder to the world that it cannot continue to ignore the legitimate aspirations of the Kashmiri people. Unfortunately, he said, the United Nations has washed its hands off in Kashmir by signally to India "it's your problem." The United States, the sole superpower in the world which bears the responsibility for setting the moral standards globally through rightful leadership, also sits back and does nothing. It just remains complacent.
Perhaps, according to him, it's also time for world's living Nobel Peace Laureates to wake up and smell the gunpowder in the streets of Indian occupied Kashmir. We must mobilise their moral weight behind the Kashmir cause. It is also time for the voices of reason and responsibility - in America, China, Russia, Europe and the Arab and Muslim world - to caution India against militarism.
He said India must be obliged for strict adherence to the cardinal principle of self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter. An effort also be made to obtain ICJ's Advisory Opinion in support of the unimplemented right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
He said Kashmir is under siege today. The illegal and unilateral steps taken by India in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir on 5 August 2019 in contravention of the international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions have once again brought the entire region to the brink of another conflict.
On its part, woefully, the Arab and Islamic world is weak and divided with no relevance in global decision-making. Pathetically, OIC's voice is muted today not only on Kashmir, but even on Palestine and Jerusalem, the very raison d'être of its own creation.
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