Right of Reply by India under Agenda Item:2 General Debate during the 52^nd Session of the Human Rights Council Session (27^th February – 4^th April 2023) delivered by

Ms. Jagpreet Kaur, Under Secretary
Geneva 8^th March 2023

Mr. President,

India is exercising its right of reply in response to the statement delivered by Pakistan.

We once again heard the representative of Pakistan wax eloquent on so-called human rights violations in India. At the outset, we deny these baseless allegations.

Pakistan’s entire focus here in the Council, both in its national capacity and as OIC coordinator on human rights and humanitarian issues, has been on preaching to the world about right and wrong, truths and untruths, and hope and despair.

It is ironical that Pakistan’s own institutions, legislations and policies have over the course of seven decades denied its population and the people in the territories under its control these truths and obliterated their hope of a true democracy and of freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice. It is especially true for people in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh who have been politically repressed and persecuted.

Non-discrimination remains a far cry in today’s Pakistan. The state of freedom of religion or belief and the plight of its minorities are well documented by this Council’s human rights mechanisms, including treaty bodies and UPR. Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas, and Hazara Shias have been targeted by blasphemy laws that carry draconian penalties, including mandatory death sentence. Flying in the face of the recommendations that Pakistan has received, in January 2023, its National Assembly amended the criminal law to enhance the punishment for insulting sacred personalities from imprisonment of 3 to 10 years.  

The State’s apathy to its minorities is evident from last month’s vigilante action in Nankana Sahib where a mob stormed a police station in broad daylight and lynched a blasphemy suspect to death.

Mr. President,

While Pakistan masquerades as a champion of human rights, its top leadership has in the past openly acknowledged creating terrorist groups and training them to fight in Afghanistan and the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Its policies to aid and abet terrorism have been directly responsible for the violation of human rights, including the right to life, of people not only in India but in our region and the whole world. Not surprisingly, it is now a victim of its own malevolent State policies of nurturing terror organisations.

As it is beset with a wide range of serious human rights concerns and other crises, especially at the current juncture, we advise Pakistan to put its own house in order and focus on improving its abysmal record of promotion and protection of human rights of its own population and the people in the territories under its control.

Mr. President,

We reject the factually incorrect and unwarranted references to India in the OIC’s statement. The entire territory of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral and inalienable part of India. OIC has lost its credibility by taking a blatantly partisan and factually incorrect approach on this issue.

I thank you.