UN & Kashmir’s unfulfilled right to self-determination
NEARLY eight decades after the United Nations adopted resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the question remains: why has the organization been unable to implement its own commitments? The continued denial of the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination remains one of the longest unresolved issues on the UN agenda and continues to challenge the credibility of the international system. During his engagements at the United Nations, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has repeatedly urged the international community, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, to play a more proactive role in implementing the UN resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has consistently maintained that the dispute should be resolved through the peaceful implementation of these resolutions and that the people of Jammu and Kashmir must be allowed to exercise their internationally recognized right to self-determination. The Prime Minister has also drawn international attention to allegations of human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir and has called for the restoration of the constitutional status that existed before August 5, 2019.
A major turning point came on August 5, 2019, when India revoked Article 370 and Article 35A of its Constitution, ending the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir and reorganizing the former........
