United Nations: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, stressed the necessity of creating a monitoring system for crimes against women and girls in areas that are illegally occupied by another country, such as Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in order to hold the occupiers accountable.
At a high-level UN Security Council discussion on “Women, Peace and Security (WPS) towards the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325,” he stated, “The most egregious atrocities and crimes against women and girls occur in situations of foreign occupation and suppression of the right to self-determination to peoples. In order to include women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution, that resolution calls for a number of actions.
The discussion, which took place the night before International Women’s Day, was organized by Mozambique, which is in charge of rotating the 15-member Council during the month of March. Veronica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovu, the foreign minister of Mozambique, presided. The acute dimension of the plight of women living under foreign occupation must be addressed head-on and vigorously, FM Bilawal stated in his remarks, or the women, peace, and security strategy will remain unfinished and unfulfilled.
Above all, the occupation forces must be held responsible, he continued. The very object of violence in situation of foreign occupation was to suppress the civilian population, he said, adding, “This is manifested most vividly in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
FM Bilawal noted that women continue to be the main victims of war and conflict and claimed that the world was far from achieving the goals of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. He added that the strategy to prevent war was yet to be implemented, ease its suffering, and establish accountability for the crimes. “We hear the cries of mothers, sisters, and daughters – in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and in Africa – suffering from the consequences of wars that were imposed on them,” he said. The de facto authorities were urged to take action to resume female education and allow them to contribute to Afghan society after the foreign minister expressed disappointment over the limitations placed on women and girls’ access to education and employment in Afghanistan.
“The right of women and girls to access all levels of education and work is a fundamental right in keeping with Islamic injunctions,” he added.
“To ensure implementation of the WPS strategy, it is essential to establish a monitoring mechanism for crimes committed against women and girls in territories under foreign occupation, including Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, pointing out that improved monitoring was called for in the UNSC Resolution 1888 (2009).
Pakistan, he said, “also supports implementation of the other measures in the Council’s resolutions, including deployment of Women Protection Advisors; a larger role for UN women peacekeepers; addressing the root causes of conflicts; a longer and equal role for women in the prevention of conflict, in the delivery of relief and recovery assistance and in forging lasting peace; and in the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
