Pakistan has strongly criticized the United Nations (UN) report on “Children and Armed Conflict” for ignoring the plight of Kashmiri children under foreign occupation.

Speaking during the UN Security Council open debate on “Children and Armed Conflict” on Thursday, Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram criticized the report for its persistent and glaring failure and selective omission of the plight of children in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and Palestine.

Expressing deep concern about nearly thirty three thousand verified grave violations against children detailed in the United Nations Secretary-General’s report, Munir Akram said children living under foreign occupation, such as those in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine, are particularly vulnerable to violence and human rights abuses.

He highlighted that despite the killing of fourteen thousand children in the Gaza war, it took significant pressure for Israel to be included in the report, while the plight of children in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir was unjustly omitted.

He stated that generations of Kashmiri children have grown up in an environment of violence, repression, and fear, noting that the humanitarian crisis for Kashmiri children worsened after India’s unilateral actions of August 2019.

Ambassador Munir Akram called for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and several Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council to be granted access to Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to investigate massive violations of human rights.

He requested the Special Rapporteur to investigate the whereabouts and condition of the 13,000 Kashmiri youth detained by Indian occupation forces after August 5, 2019.

He stated the UN Secretary-General’s report last year rightly urged India to implement measures to protect children, including prohibiting the use of lethal and non-lethal force, ending the use of pellet guns, and preventing the ill-treatment of children in detention.

Ambassador Munir Akram emphasized that Pakistan supports the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to address situations of children in armed conflict but stressed that the legal parameters of the SRSG’s mandate must be respected.

He stated that references to Pakistan in the Secretary-General’s report were outside the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. Demonstrating Pakistan’s commitment to child protection, Ambassador Munir Akram affirmed that as one of the earliest signatories to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistan is fully committed to implementing its provisions.

Despite its principled position on the SRSG’s mandate, Pakistan will continue to engage with the SRSG’s office to further strengthen child protection in Pakistan in line with its national framework and international obligations.

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