ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Munir Akram has emphasized the urgent need to address extreme and disproportionate suffering of women and girls in situations of foreign occupation and intervention.
Addressing an event organized by Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, he underscored the profound impact of war, conflict, and violence on women and girls under foreign occupation.
Drawing attention to the specific regions, Ambassador Munir Akram pointed to the decades-long suffering of women in Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, according to a Radio Pakistan’s report.
He highlighted the brutal conditions endured by Palestinian women under Israeli occupation since the Nakba of 1948 and the grave human rights violations against Kashmiri women since the 1989 Kashmir Intifada.
Other speakers called for greater global efforts including the uniform implementation of the UN resolutions, treaties and conventions to end the situations of foreign occupation and conflicts facing women around the world particularly in Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine.
They said that a UN monitoring mechanism should be created to register all crimes and violations committed against women and girls under foreign occupation.
They also agreed that mechanisms needed to be established by the UN to ensure accountability for sexual violence and other crimes against women and girls by occupation forces, including an International Criminal Tribunal on accountability for such violations and crimes.
The speakers further called for elaboration of international human rights and humanitarian laws and norms to enlarge the ambit of the protection of women under foreign occupation, including an additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention or an appropriate Security Council resolution.