Toronto – November 28, 2009: On the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (November 27-29), Peace and Justice Forum (PJF) has urged the Commonwealth leaders to help the Kashmiri people’s longstanding demand for justice, freedom, and respect for human rights. Mr. Mushtaq A. Jeelani, Executive Director of the PJF in separate letters to 53 Commonwealth leaders and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, expressed his serious concern about deteriorating human rights situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. The Executive Director reminded the leaders that the Kashmir issue has dominated the geopolitics of South Asia for nearly 62 years because of continuing rivalry between India and Pakistan. They have fought three major wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir. The dispute between the rivals is the root of the nuclear arms race, which has resulted in the diversion of resources from human development to militarization. Unfortunately, the people of Kashmir are caught in the middle of this deadly tug-of-war. He underscored that the 700,000 strong Indian forces have killed more than 100,000 Kashmiris to silence the people’s demand for freedom, justice, and respect for human rights. They continue to carry out arbitrary detention, summary executions, custodial killings, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, rape, sexual exploitation, torture and fake encounters. Generations of Kashmiris have grown up under the shadow of the gun; not a single family is unaffected; property worth hundreds of millions of dollars has been destroyed and the suffering and devastation continues unabated, sadly drawing no significant attention from the international community. Mr. Jeelani cautioned the leaders that impunity has become a licence for the Indian occupation forces to wreak havoc with the lives of Kashmiris. The deliberate and unprovoked attacks and other patterns of abuse have all become too frequent to report. No perpetrator has ever been prosecuted in a real manner, despite the fact that such crimes have been extensively documented by many international human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The Executive Director urged the leaders’ attention to the following statement: “There can be no lasting political settlement in Kashmir unless human rights abuses that have fueled the insurgency are addressed,” underlined Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, February 9th, 2009. “Human Rights Watch called for the repeal of laws such as the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, and the Public Safety Act. These laws provide the armed forces with extraordinary powers to search, detain, and use lethal force, leading to numerous human rights violations. They also provide immunity for security forces. Prosecutions of security force personnel, even where the facts are well established, are rare.” Mr. Jeelani brought to the leaders’ attention Amnesty International’s letter, November 18th, 2009, to the US President Barack Obama: “The Indian side of Kashmir is another area where Indian Security forces commit mass human rights abuses with impunity. Once again, the abuses are facilitated by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 and other similar laws. The civilian population of Kashmir has paid a high price for the conflict. Thousands have disappeared over the years.” He emphasised that both the Harare and Singapore declarations reaffirmed commitment of the Commonwealth to the promotion of international understanding and world peace. The Harare declaration further reaffirmed “fundamental human rights including equal rights…for all…regardless of their political belief” on the principles to which the Commonwealth countries are committed. Mr. Jeelani reminded the leaders that as a signatory to the Commonwealth's Harare declaration, government of India should be committed to the defence of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The fact remains that New Delhi continues with its brutal military campaign to silence Kashmiris demanding the right to self-determination. Therefore, India’s conduct is evidently in violation of the principles set out in the Harare declaration. However, the Commonwealth has been turning a blind eye to the unprecedented human rights abuses committed by the Indian occupation forces in Jammu and Kashmir, more particularly during the past 20 years. The Executive Director underlined that the Kashmir conflict is a “political” and “human” tragedy and the world community, including India and Pakistan, has overlooked this critically important human dimension of the issue. Kashmiris’ demand is simple and in accordance with international law: implementation of the United Nations resolutions for a plebiscite to determine the future status of the disputed region in a peaceful and democratic way. Whatever the outcome, it will be impartial and binding for all three parties – India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir. Mr. Jeelani said that last two years have seen renewed and spontaneous, massive and non-violent protests where virtually everyone young and old, men and women, boys and girls are out on the streets protesting against India’s continued occupation. Such – on and off – protests have totally transformed the Kashmiri freedom struggle into a classic people’s movement demanding the right to self-determination. He reminded the leaders that Kashmiris are yearning for peace, justice and freedom. They want a just and dignified peace that guarantees total freedom from foreign occupation and alien domination. Their struggle to achieve that right to self-determination will not be extinguished until India and Pakistan accept its exercise by the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The Executive Director emphasised that the perception that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan is unsubstantiated. Kashmir is not a territorial or bilateral issue. It is about the future of 15 million people with their own history of independence; their own language and culture. This is a simple explanation for the failure to resolve the Kashmir issue through on-again and off-again bilateral dialogue for the past 62 years. The people of Kashmir have lost complete faith in the bilateral process of India and Pakistan and their ability to resolve the issue. He underlined that the right to self-determination is the cornerstone of the United Nations system that underpins the contemporary international order. Its unquestioned acceptance has been established by core international instruments including the Charter of the United Nations, the two Covenants on Civil and Political and Economic, Social and Cultural rights and the declaration adopted by General Assembly resolution 1514. Mr. Jeelani emphasised that effective exercise of a people’s right to self-determination is an essential pre-requisite for the genuine exercise of other human rights and freedoms. Only when self-determination has been achieved can a people take the measures necessary to ensure human dignity, the full enjoyment of all rights including political, economic, social and cultural progress without any form of discrimination. The Executive Director underscored that the right to self-determination is thus the raison d’etre of the contemporary international order and an absolute must for the progressive realisation of all fundamental human rights; this right must be exercised freely without covert influence, coercion or repression; it cannot be exercised under conditions of foreign occupation and it is non-lapsable. He hoped that the leaders meeting in Port of Spain would encourage the UN to implement its longstanding resolutions on Kashmir; by doing so the Commonwealth in principle would honour its commitment to Harare’s declaration: “support the United Nations and other international institutions in world’s search for peace, disarmament and effective arms control; and in the promotion of international consensus on major political, economic and social issues.” He warned that the failure of the Commonwealth to address the unresolved issue of Kashmir would be making a mockery of Harare’s declaration and point to institutional weaknesses in the Commonwealth’s capacity to promote and protect human rights. The Executive Director underscored that it is high time that the Commonwealth leaders meeting in Port of Spain demand that India put an end to widespread human rights violations by its security forces, and to bring the perpetrators to justice. The poor human rights records of any member country undermines the Commonwealth’s important role of promoting human rights, democracy, good governance and the rule of law. The Commonwealth needs to hold members accountable for their abusive human rights records. Mr. Jeelani said he is convinced that the Commonwealth’s help can aid India and Pakistan to transform the Kashmir issue from being a bone of contention to a bridge of understanding for lasting peace and prosperity of South Asia’s billion plus people. The Executive Director underlined that a peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute will help to bring stability in the South Asian region, including in Afghanistan and eliminate a potential threat of another major war. This would further help laying the foundation for a new era of coexistence between India and Pakistan.