Daily Times

Pakistan has called for the strict application of international law to respond to the acute issue of missing persons in armed conflict, saying the U.N. should direct its efforts to deal with “concrete situations”, including the abduction of 13,000 boys in the wake of India’s August 2019 crackdown in occupied Kashmir.

“It is important to take action against states and actors found culpable in the phenomenon of missing persons,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told an Arria-Formua meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

The Council’s Arria-Formula meeting was convened by Switzerland. The format is named after a former Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, Diego Arriva. It is a consultation process which affords members of the Security Council the opportunity to hear persons in an informal setting.

In its concept note, the Mission of Switzerland said it called the meeting together with The Global Alliance for the Missing, a coalition of 13 member states seeking to raise awareness about the issue of missing persons and separated families and to mobilize action to address it.

“Pakistan believes that the most effective response to the issue of missing persons in armed conflict is the strict application of international law and a process of accountability,” Ambassador Jadoon said.

Pakistan, he said, has repeatedly come to the UN Security Council, General Assembly, and the Secretary General with the “concrete reality of 13,000 young Kashmiri boys” abducted by the Indian occupying force, of which a large number has disappeared.

“The cases of missing persons in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have led to the tragic phenomenon of ‘half widows,’ referring to Kashmiri women who live in uncertainty about the fate of their husbands, sons, and brothers,” the Pakistani envoy said.

“These women are denied the basic right to know if their loved ones are alive or dead, and are deprived of the opportunity to bury and mourn them properly,” he added.

“We have had no response from any institution or personality on this specific complaint of thousands of people ‘missing’ in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Jadoon told the meeting.

“United Nations’ energies must be directed on these specific cases, instead of thematic discussions on missing persons – which are not very productive.

“Unless the United Nations, Human Rights Council, and other relevant bodies are willing and able to address such concrete cases of missing persons in armed conflicts, this issue cannot be addressed,” he emphasized.

Pakistan on Wednesday underscored the need for overcoming the challenges facing the world’s oceans, which sustain life on Earth, saying climate change is warming the seas, disrupting weather patterns, and altering marine ecosystems.

“Marine biodiversity is suffering from over-exploitation and ocean acidification, with over one-third of fish stocks harvested unsustainably,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told a meeting of the parties to U.N. Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS).

“Coastal waters are polluted with chemicals, plastics, and other waste,” Ambassador Jadoon said.

Additionally, he said, climate change is warming the oceans, disrupting weather patterns and currents, and altering marine ecosystems.

The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention sets forth a comprehensive legal framework for the use and protection of the sea, the seabed and subsoil, and the marine environment, including both natural and cultural resources.

Ambassador Jadoon underscored the importance of the work of UNCLOS’s three bodies — the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), saying they were dealing with the issues before them.

He also praised the work of ITLOS and acknowledged its advisory opinion on climate change and international law, which underscores the obligations of States Parties under UNCLOS to mitigate marine pollution from greenhouse gas emissions.

Ambassador Jadoon reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to UNLOS and its 1994 Implementing Agreement on the 30th anniversary of its entry into force.

He also reiterated Pakistan’s support of the 2030 Agenda, including Sustainable Development Goal 14, on the conservation and sustainable use of oceans.