39th Session UNHRC: Intervention by Ms. Yoana Barakova - Research Analyst EFSAS
14-09-2018, Geneva
Text and video of the Intervention by Ms. Yoana Barakova, Research Analyst European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), on General Debate Item 3 (Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development) during the 39th Session of the UNHRC in Geneva.
Video of Ms. Yoana Barakova's Intervention on General Debate Item 3 during the 39th Session of the UNHRC
"Mr. Vice President,
Terrorism is the most deplorable violation of human rights.
Yet surprisingly, an office as exalted as that of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in its recent report on the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, has failed to even mention once, the cross-border terrorism perpetrated by Pakistan in Jammu & Kashmir.
On the contrary, UN designated terrorist organizations and terrorists have been classified ‘armed groups’ and ‘leaders’, as many as 38 times in this Report. The adoption of such inappropriate terminology directly contradicts the one used in common UN parlance.
The Report further states that ‘Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, opinion, peaceful assembly and association in Pakistan Administered Kashmir have limited the ability of the High Commissioner to assess the human rights situation there’. Whereas, first-hand valuable information shared with this Council by human rights activists from Pakistan Administered Jammu & Kashmir, at great risk to their lives and that of their families back home, has been completely disregarded.
Mr. Vice President,
Propriety demanded that the office of the High Commissioner carry out due diligence on a report on an issue as weighty as the one in question, rather than superficially attempt a report with serious methodological, factual and analytical shortcomings, based on an artificially imposed timeline which render its correctness and neutrality highly dubious.
Therefore, in the interest of fairness and impartiality should the report have been issued at all, I ask.
Thank you".
