|

Is dislocation of UN Office a path to ‘Insaniat” (Humanity) or a broken promise?

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
Secretary General
World Kashmir Awareness

Washington, D.C.
July 10, 2014

On July 8, 2014, the Spokesman of Indian Ministry of External Affairs made a formal statement saying, “As far as we (India) are concerned the UNMOGIP (United Nations Military Observer Group in India & Pakistan) has outlived its relevance. This is a consistent stance that we have articulated on several occasions since the Shimla accord.”

What is the legal ground of the spokesman’s pronouncement? Christopher Hitchens has made it easy to understand when he said; “”Perhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.” And George R.R. Martin confirms it by saying “Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.”

The spokesman has conveniently forgotten that India and Pakistan are signatories to various United Nations Security Council resolutions. These resolutions constitute an agreement because, unlike most resolutions of the Security Council, their provisions were first negotiated with the parties and, it was only after their written consent was obtained that they were adopted by the Security Council.

These resolutions are binding on both India and Pakistan to respect the verdict of the people of Kashmir to be obtained through a free vote under the impartial supervision of the United Nations. India, however, recognizing that the people of Kashmir would never freely vote accession to India; it contrived excuse after excuse to frustrate a plebiscite. One of the excuses is that Security Council resolutions have been superseded by the Simla Agreement.

The implication is false because it would run counter to a standing principle of international relations which is set out in Article 103 of the Charter of the United Nations (accepted by every Member of the United Nations, including India). The Article says: “In the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members of the United nations under the present Charter and their obligations under any other international agreement, their obligations under the present Charter shall prevail”

What, then, is the relevance of the Simla Agreement as far as instituting a peace process between India and Pakistan, fully recognizing Kashmir’s inherent right of self-determination, is concerned?

First, it may be that the Simla Agreement is being invoked because of lack of knowledge about its actual terms and the circumstances in which it was signed. India is taking full advantage of this factor to spread the misinformation that the Simla Agreement absolves her from the responsibility of striving for a settlement of the dispute. By citing the Simla Agreement at this stage, or encouraging others to do so, India obviously seeks to prevent those basic issues of the dispute being addressed that were fully taken into account by the United Nations.

Second, despite the circumstance of the Simla Agreement, the Agreement nowhere precludes a settlement of the Kashmir dispute along the lines laid down by the United Nations with the consent of both India and Pakistan. Nor does it require that the United Nations be by-passed in the effort towards a settlement. On the contrary, it expressly says that the relations between the two countries shall be governed by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. The Agreement thus reinforces the obligations of both India & Pakistan to achieve a settlement in accordance with the resolutions endorsed by the Security Council resolutions and, if their bilateral efforts fail, to turn to the United Nations for assistance. Nothing would be more contrary to the Charter — and, therefore, to the Simla Agreement itself — than to bar recourse to the United Nations.

The spokesman needs to understand that a sincere and serious effort towards a just settlement of the Kashmir dispute must squarely deal with the realities of the situation and fully respond to the people’s rights involved in it. The Simla Agreement does neither. Indeed, it was not intended to do so. A peace process that ignores the wishes of the people of Kashmir and is designed to sidetrack the United Nations will not only prove to be an exercise in futility but can also cause incalculable human and political damage to all parties concerned.

Dr. Fai can be reached at 202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com

Similar Posts

  • |

    Is Kashmir an Issue of Election of Self-determination?

    This is an opportunity to explore a vexing but significant topic in the field of human rights: self-determination. The right of self-determination has been celebrated for ages. It is a basic principle of the United Nation Charter which has been reaffirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and applied countless times to the settlement of international disputes. The concept played a significant part in the post-world war I settlement, leading for example to plebiscite in a number of disputed border areas, even though no reference was made to self-determination in the League of Nations Covenant.

  • |

    Universal Development Agenda & Our Priorities

    The issue of ‘universal development agenda’ is the issue of the twenty-first century. Never before have so many suffered amidst liberty and luxury for the few. The wealth of single individuals exceeds the wealth of many nations. In highly developed countries, the number of persons living past 80 years is soaring. In deprived and convulsed countries, the average longevity is but half that age. While citizens of some African and Asian countries are starving, the rich countries are beset with obesity. Discrepancies of these types are morally disturbing. The United Nations is ideally suited to ending these shocking inequalities because it hosts all the nations of the world and endows each with identical voting power in the General Assembly. The poorest and the weakest are equal to the richest and the strongest.

  • |

    Be Back Soon

    Be Back Soon

    Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai

    Washington, D.C.
    Tuesday, July 10, 2012

    Saying goodbye is sometimes easy but sometimes a very difficult thing to do, particularly when I am saying goodbye, though temporarily, to freedom and to a mission that I have given my life to. But the real goodbye is not the words that I have formed in my head because there are none that express how I really feel. The goodbye is in a slowly swelling sense of absence of all the people and places and efforts I have put my heart into that has become like a flower near a pond that may dry up for lack of rain. Its sustenance is going away. The absence is the letting go of all the things that I embrace. How does one let go of love? How does one let go of one’s heart, one’s very life? A life is not merely held within one’s blood circulating in the body or in the breath that one takes. It is so much more in all the people that I have lived for and my beloved country of origin, Kashmir – the paradise on earth.

  • |

    Kashmiris’ Wishes Must Be Respected: Dr. Fai

    Washington, D.C. June 29, 2012. “Any Kashmir solution that fails to command the consensus of the 17 million people of Jammu & Kashmir is doomed to shipwreck moments after launching. Indeed, any process that ignores the wishes of the people of Kashmir will not only prove to be an exercise in futility but can also cause incalculable human and political damage. Thus, it makes no sense to negotiate over their heads. The best that could result from these meaningless negotiations would be sound and fury signifying nothing, as at Tashkent, Simla, Lahore and elsewhere,” said Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai at a reception held in his honor in Darnestown, Maryland.

    Dr. Fai thanked the members of the Kashmiri American community for becoming instrumental in highlighting the issue of Kashmir not only in Washington, D. C. but in New York City as well. He told his well-wishers that the people of the Indian Occupied Kashmir remain indebted to them for their relentless and consistent advocacy for the just cause of Kasshmir.

  • |

    Why do Kashmiris Observe August 15th as Black Day

    The people of Jammu & Kashmir on both sides of the Cease-fire line and worldwide observed the 69th anniversary of India’s Independence Day as a black day because of India’s failure to honor its pledges that  it has given to the people of Jammu & Kashmir at the United Nations. This year, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) had summoned all Kashmiris all over the world to demonstrate on August 15th, as a symbol of their unity and harmony. Their unity in mourning demonstrated their will to resist India’s illegal occupation and defiance of the United Nations Security Council resolutions mandating a self-determination plebiscite for the 18 million people of Jammu & Kashmir.