UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (APP): Pakistan has called for the strict application of international law to respond to the acute issue of missing persons in armed conflict, saying the U.N. should direct its efforts to deal with \u201cconcrete situations\u201d, including the abduction of 13,000 boys in the wake of India\u2019s August 2019 crackdown in occupied Kashmir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is important to take action against states and actors found culpable in the phenomenon of missing persons,\u201d Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told an Arria-Formua meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Council\u2019s Arria-Formula meeting was convened by Switzerland. The format is named after a former Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, Diego Arriva. It is a consultation process which affords members of the Security Council the opportunity to hear persons in an informal setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its concept note, the Mission of Switzerland said it called the meeting together with The Global Alliance for the Missing, a coalition of 13 member states seeking to raise awareness about the issue of missing persons and separated families and to mobilize action to address it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPakistan believes that the most effective response to the issue of missing persons in armed conflict is the strict application of international law and a process of accountability,\u201d Ambassador Jadoon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan, he said, has repeatedly come to the UN Security Council, General Assembly, and the Secretary General with the \u201cconcrete reality of 13,000 young Kashmiri boys\u201d abducted by the Indian occupying force, of which a large number has disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe cases of missing persons in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have led to the tragic phenomenon of \u2018half widows,\u2019 referring to Kashmiri women who live in uncertainty about the fate of their husbands, sons, and brothers,\u201d the Pakistani envoy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese women are denied the basic right to know if their loved ones are alive or dead, and are deprived of the opportunity to bury and mourn them properly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have had no response from any institution or personality on this specific complaint of thousands of people \u2018missing\u2019 in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,\u201d Ambassador Jadoon told the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnited Nations\u2019 energies must be directed on these specific cases, instead of thematic discussions on missing persons \u2013 which are not very productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnless the United Nations, Human Rights Council, and other relevant bodies are willing and able to address such concrete cases of missing persons in armed conflicts, this issue cannot be addressed,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (APP): Pakistan has called for the strict application of international law to respond to the acute issue of missing persons in armed conflict, saying the U.N. should direct its efforts to deal with \u201cconcrete situations\u201d, including the abduction of 13,000 boys in the wake of India\u2019s August 2019 crackdown in occupied […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,84,396,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-india","category-latest","category-paksitan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}