LONDON: India and Pakistan clashed at a meeting of the human rights commission in Geneva when the Pakistani delegation sought to rake up the Kashmir issue PTI reports. Speaking at the 47th session of the commission on human rights ambassador I.S. Chadha India’s permanent representative at Geneva asserted that the exercise of the right of self-determination could have meaning only in the context of territories which are not self-governing.
It could not possibly be applied to territories which were integral parts of sovereign and independent states
Chadha said Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947 was of its own free will and this accession was final and irrevokable the argument which Pakistan is advancing is a self-serving distortion of the principle of self-determination and to advance this argument is to strike at the very roots of the present-day global order of nation states he said.
Chadha drew the commission’s attention to Pakistan’s support to the terrorists operating within Indias borders.
Pakistan-trained militants in Jammu and Kashmir are fighting for secession from India.
The Pakistani delegation accused India of violating human rights in Jammu and Kashmir and reiterated its demand for right of self-determination for the people in Kashmir.
Ambassador Chadha also drew the commission’s attention to the 1972 Indo-Pak Shimla agreement which provides that the two countries are resolved to settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 15, 1991
