UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, emphasized on Tuesday the importance of establishing a monitoring mechanism for checking crime against females in territories under foreign occupation, including Indian Illegally-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in order to hold the occupation forces accountable.
During a high-level debate on ‘Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) towards the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325,’ he stated that the most heinous atrocities and offenses against women and girls take place in situations of foreign occupation and suppression of peoples’ right to self-determination.
This resolution calls for a variety of measures to include women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution. Mozambique, which holds the rotating presidency of the fifteen-member Council for the month of March, organized the debate on the eve of International Women’s Day.
Occupation forces must be held accountable: Bilawal
FM Bilawal stated in his remarks that the women, peace, and security strategy will be incomplete and unfulfilled as long as the acute dimension of women’s plight under foreign invasion is not addressed frontally and vigorously. Above all, he said, occupation forces must be held accountable. The purpose of violence in a foreign occupation situation was to suppress the civilian population. He went on to say that this is most visible in the occupied Palestinian territories and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
FM Bilawal stated that the world was still a long way from achieving the goals of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, noting that women remained the primary victims of war and conflict. He stated that we hear the cries of mothers, sisters, and daughters suffering from the consequences of wars imposed on them in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Africa and that the strategy to prevent war, alleviate suffering, and establish accountability for crimes has yet to be implemented.
The foreign minister expressed dissatisfaction with the restrictions on education and work imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan and tried to persuade the de facto authorities to take steps towards resuming female education and allowing them to contribute to Afghan society. According to Islamic injunctions, the right of women and girls to all levels of education and employment is a fundamental right.
While noting that improved monitoring was called for in UN Security Council Resolution 1888 (2009), he stated that in order to ensure the implementation of the WPS strategy, a monitoring mechanism for crimes against women and girls in regions under foreign occupation, including Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, must be established. He also stated that Pakistan supports the implementation of other Council resolutions, such as the deployment of Women Protection Advisors, a larger role for UN women peacekeepers, addressing the root causes of conflicts, an equal and longer role for women in conflict prevention, relief and recovery assistance delivery, forging lasting peace, and peaceful conflict resolution. — APP
