At UN, Pakistan calls for protection of oppressed people of Indian-occupied Kashmir, Muslims in India.

UNITED NATIONS -- Pakistan told the UN General Assembly Thursday that the most egregious aspect of the concept of responsibility to protect, or R2P, was its "selectivity and double standards", saying its sponsors have ignored the need for 'collective action' to protect the suffering people of occupied Palestine or of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

"While high-sounding pronunciations are made about the situations in some targeted countries, mostly developing and Islamic States, there is complete silence with regard to other situations which clearly fall within the purview of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 Summit Declaration," Ambassador Munir Akram said during a thematic debate in the 193-member Assembly on the the doctrine of responsibility to protect.

(The concept of R2P rests upon three pillars: the responsibility of each State to protect its populations; the responsibility of the international community to assist States in protecting their populations; and the responsibility of the international community to protect when a State is manifestly failing to protect its populations.)

"One specific circumstance where those provisions would apply is in situations of foreign occupation or alien domination," the Pakistani envoy said, adding that such situations were often rife with pressing human rights emergencies and could easily spiral to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"Yet, we have not heard from the concept's sponsors about the need for 'collective action' to protect the people of occupied Palestine or of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir," Ambassador Akram added.

For more than seven decades, he said, India has denied the right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people, in violation of multiple Security Council resolutions, and continued to commit widespread and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

"Unfortunately," Ambassador Akram said, "the proponents of R2P have observed a deafening silence on these Indian crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir."

The concept of R2P should also be invoked to prevent the danger of an impending genocide against the 200 million Muslims of India, the Pakistani envoy went on to say.

"No one can be unaware of the systematic campaign underway in India by the ruling adherents of Hindutva to suppress Muslims and to eliminate the rich legacy of Islam in India," he said...