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- India has registered its protest against a new report by the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights(UNHCR) on Kashmir.
- UNHCR in its report has said that neither India nor Pakistan have taken any concrete steps to solve the concerns raised in its first report on Kashmir which was released in 2018.
- The report has claimed that the number of civilian casualties reported between May 2018 and April 2019 may be the highest in over a decade.
- The report also claimed that despite high civilian casualties,there were no fresh investigations conducted into the use of excessive force by security personnel.
- On Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,the report said that people are deprived of a number of fundamental human rights, particularly in relation to freedom of expression and opinion,peaceful assembly and association.
- The report has called on the UN Human Rights Council(UNHRC) to conduct an independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir.
- However,India has said that the report is in violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and ignore the core issue of cross-border terrorism.
- Further,India has said that report is in complete variance with UNSC position where UNSC had strongly condemned the Pulwama terror attack and subsequently proscribed Masood Azhar as a terrorist entity.
- UNHRC is an inter-governmental body headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland.It is made up of 47 members states.The members are elected by the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) with 3-year terms,with a maximum of 2 consecutive terms.
- UNHRC meets 3 times a year to examine human rights violations worldwide.Its resolutions are not legally binding but carry moral authority.
