Self determination for Kashmiris Pakistan to sign Civil Rights Covenant despite Indian reservation
Local Sunday, January 27th, 2008The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be signing the ‘International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’ (ICCPR) of the United Nations
despite the fact that India has not accepted the right of
self-determination of Kashmiris while ratifying the covenant.
The ICCPR was adopted by the United Nations Assembly in December 1966
and came into force on March 23, 1976. Currently, 160 countries are
signatories, and 67 are party to the covenant.
Pakistan had
committed to sign the ICCPR at the time of its election to the newly
established Human Rights Council (HRC) in April 2006. According to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such an announcement was required under
election rules of the Council and consistent with the commitment,
inter-ministerial consultations were initiated and NoCs of all the
stakeholders were obtained to sign the ICCPR.
While ratifying the ICCPR, India had declared the following reservations with regard to the right of self-determination: “With
reference to Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the ICCPR, India declares
that the words ‘right of self-determination’ appearing in this article
apply only to the peoples under foreign domination and that these words
do not apply to sovereign independent States or to a section of a
people or nation which is the essence of national integrity”.
However,
Pakistan has decided to submit following objection to the Indian
reservation: “Pakistan objects to the declaration made by India in
respect of Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights and article 1 of ICCPR”.
Pakistan is of the
view that right of self-determination, as enshrined in the chapter of
the UN and as embodied in the covenant, applies to all people under
foreign occupation and alien domination, sources said.
“Pakistan
cannot consider as valid any interpretation of the right of
self-determination which is contrary to the clear language of the
provisions in question. Moreover, the said reservation is incompatible
with the object and purpose of the covenants between Pakistan and India
without the latter benefiting from its reservations,” Foreign Ministry
in its objections to be submitted to the UN said, sources added.
They
said that Pakistan would submit additional reservation, as a statement,
saying that Islamabad “reserves the right to attach appropriate
reservations, make declarations and state its understanding in respect
of various provisions of the covenant at the time of ratification’s”.
The
issue had been placed before the caretaker Cabinet in its meeting on
January 22, which gave the go-ahead signal to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Giving justification of signing the pact, Foreign Ministry
briefed the Cabinet that HRC’s upcoming review of implementation of
voluntary commitments made by member countries in January 2008,
ratification of ICCPR had gained further importance.
“Non-compliance
of voluntary declaration, besides having an impact on our bid for
re-election to the HRC for 2008-2011 term will also project Pakistan in
a negative list. It is, thus, not in our interest to further delay the
decision,” Foreign Ministry said in its briefing.
Sources said
that Foreign Ministry told the Cabinet that Pakistan was often a target
of criticism for violation of human rights standards at various
international fora and in numerous reports of western NGOs.
The
Ministry expressed fear that Pakistan’s non-adherence to ICCPR had been
cited as an example in such criticism. Besides, UN High Commissioner on
Human Rights (UNHCHR) has frequently urged Pakistan to sign the
covenant.
Pakistan’s third-generation agreement with the
European Union (EU) also contains a clause in respect of human rights,
which was quoted by the EU interlocutors to press the case for
Pakistan’s accession to the various human rights conventions, sources
added.
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on Jan 27 2008. Filed under