Right of Reply by India under Agenda Item 2 – General Debate on the Oral Update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights during the 54th Session of Human Rights Council (11 September - 13 October 2023) delivered by Ms. Seema Pujani, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, 13 September 2023
Mr. President,
1. India is exercising its Right of Reply in response to the statement delivered by Pakistan. My delegation rejects their baseless allegations. It is ironical that a country with a dismal record of human rights continues to misuse this august forum to peddle its propaganda against India.
2. Pakistan is well-known to have consistently practiced institutional discrimination against and persecution of its own ethnic and religious minorities. I draw the Council’s attention to last month’s attacks on the Christian community in Jaranwala where a vigilante mob torched over two dozen churches and nearly hundred homes on alleged blasphemy claims. Yet another grim reminder of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws that carry a potential death sentence. In 2017, the Human Rights Committee had recommended that Pakistan repeal these laws or amend them to bring them in compliance with the ICCPR. Unfazed, recently Pakistan’s Senate passed a bill to increase the punishment for using derogatory remarks against revered personalities from 3 years of imprisonment to at least 10 years in jail.
3. This is a country that has excommunicated its own Ahmaddiya community from within the fold of Islam and subjects them to state-sponsored persecution.
4. The Council must also remain cognizant of the plight of the Shia community that has been targeted by the majority and brutally attacked by terrorist groups. Only earlier this month, massive protests erupted in Gilgit-Baltistan, an area under the illegal occupation of Pakistan, over the arrest of a Shia clericfor his comments at a religious gathering deemed to be blasphemous.
5. The Council is aware of the plight of Hindus in Pakistan, including forced abduction of minor girls, their forced marriage and conversion as well as desecration and destruction of temples.
6. The state of press freedom as well as freedoms of expression, assembly and association in Pakistan is equally deplorable. It is well established that Pakistan has been crushing dissent and engaging in political repression in Balochistan. Pashtuns and Sindhis continue to struggle against systemic oppression.
7. This is also a country that is host and patron to over 150 UN-proscribed terrorists and terrorist entities who are responsible for violating the right to life of people in our region and around the world.
8. Pakistan would do well to put its own house in order and ensure the promotion and protection of the human rights of its citizens and the people in the territories under its occupation before pointing a finger at others.
Mr. President,
9. We regret and reject the unwarranted and misguided reference made by the OIC to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, an integral and inalienable part of India. It is advised to not allow itself to be misused by Pakistan.
I thank you.
