Second Right of Reply by India under Agenda 3 at the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council (25 February-22 March 2019) delivered by Sh. Animesh Choudhury, First Secretary on 08th March 2019.
Madam Vice President,
India is forced to its second right of reply.
2. Pakistan has once again tried to misuse this august platform to pursue its political objectives. Pakistan's unsolicited and unwarranted comments pertaining to any part of India including the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir are to distract the attention of the world from its own dismal state of human rights.
3. India has robust institutional frameworks and democratic institutions to ensure adherence to rule of law and respect for fundamental rights of all people. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is administered by a ‘deep state’ and it has orchestrated demographic change, absorption of occupied territories, denial of basic constitutional, political, civil and economic rights, systemic army persecution and violence against the people living in PoK. Deliberate discriminatory policies have caused extreme poverty, underdevelopment, and forcible deprivation of land. Every voice of dissent in PoK; be it media, civil society, political dissidents is regularly snuffed out.
4. Minorities in Pakistan are harassed through blasphemy laws; Hindu, Sikh and Christian women are forcefully married and converted, political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are brutally suppressed, millions of innocents endure enforced disappearances, sectarian violence and systemic persecution are unleashed against Muslim minorities such as Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailia and Hazaras.
5. It is high time for Pakistan to do some deep introspection. We would once again urge Pakistan to focus its energies on improving human rights situation and dismantling the terrorism infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. This would go a long way in bringing peace and stability to the region and beyond.
Thank you, Madam Vice President.
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