OIC Group rejects newly-notified order

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir rejected the newly-notified Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Order 2020, and Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate Rules 2020, aimed at changing the demographic structure of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).

A virtual emergency meeting held at the ministerial level and chaired by secretary general OIC, on Monday.

At the concluding of the meeting, a communiqué was released, which affirmed that Indian action of August 5, 2019 and new domicile rules are in complete violation of the UNSC resolutions, international law including the 4th Geneva conventions and India’s own solemn commitments to implement the UNSC resolutions.

The committee appreciated the two reports issued by the UN OHCHR in June 2018 and July 2019 comprehensively documenting the gross and systematic violations of human rights in the IOJ&K.

It also deplored the extended, months long, lockdown of the Kashmiris, and communications blackout since August 5, 2019 and suppression of Kashmiris through arbitrary detentions fake encounters, co-called cordon and search operations designed to inflict collective punishment on entire neighbourhoods and indiscriminate use of force including use of pellet guns against unarmed Kashmiri protestors.

The forum also expressed concern over India’s intensified ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LOC), resulting in deaths and injuries to civilian population particularly women and children.

The forum reaffirmed its support for the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination and freedom from Indian occupation and stressed that the question of Kashmir was of utmost importance for the Muslim Ummah.

The Contact Group demanded from India to rescind its unilateral and illegal actions, and allow the Kashmiri people to freely exercise their right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.

India must halt its human rights violations; stop indiscriminate use of force; lift the unabated military siege and inhuman lockdown; repeal its draconian emergency laws; allow exercise of fundamental freedoms; and release all illegal detainees.

It further demanded to stop any moves towards changing the demographic structure of the IOJ&K, as they are illegal and in violation of international law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention and provide unhindered access to the OIC, the IPHRC and the UN Fact Finding missions, the OIC Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, and international media to investigate into human rights violations in the IOJ&K.

It agree to the call made in the OHCHR’s report to establish a Commission of Inquiry to conduct comprehensive independent international investigations on human rights violations and requested the Office of UN OHCHR to continue to monitor and report on the situation of human rights in the IOJ&K.

The group recommended the Humanitarian Department at the General Secretariat of the OIC to examine and analyze the egregious violations of human rights and humanitarian standards in the deepening crisis in the IOJ&K – with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic – with a view to evolving ways and means to address its gravity and adverse impact on the lives and livelihoods of Kashmiri people in IOJ&K.

It called upon the OIC member states to raise the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in their bilateral engagements with India with a view to safeguarding the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory, and ensuring expeditious implementation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The group requested the OIC secretary general to highlight the worsening situation in IOJ&K at various international fora including the UN, and call for immediate steps for amelioration of humanitarian situation and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.