UNITED NATIONS
\nIn the wake of \u201cbrutal surge\u201d in violence against children in 2024, Pakistan told the UN Security Council that youths living under foreign occupation are particularly vulnerable to widespread abuses, and called for steps to ensure their safety and protection.
\nSpeaking in the 15-member Council\u2019s debate on \u2018Children and Armed Conflict\u2019, Pakistan\u2019s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that record high child rights violations were leaving \u201ccountless young lives maimed, starved, burned, frozen to death, or weakened by severe malnutrition.\u201d
\nIn this regard, he drew attention to, among others hotspots, the suffering of children in war-shattered Gaza and Indian-occupied Kashmir. \u201cThe Security Council has the solemn responsibility to address this disturbing state of affairs, ensure the protection of children and prevent their suffering, and ensure accountability of the perpetrators without any discrimination or political considerations.\u201d
\nAt the outset, the Pakistani envoy echoes the deep concern expressed in the UN Secretary General\u2019s latest report, which details 41,370 verified grave violations against children in 2024, representing a shocking 25% increase compared to the previous year.
\n\u201cThis crisis is being felt with harrowing intensity in some parts of the world embroiled in devastating armed conflicts,\u201d the Pakistani envoy said, regretting that children continue to bear the cost of war. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar pointed out that it took the killing of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza for the situation to be included in the last year\u2019s report.
\nAnd while welcoming this year\u2019s removal of references to Pakistan as a situation of concern \u2014 \u201ca long-overdue correction\u201d \u2014 the Pakistani envoy expressed regret that the previously documented plight of children in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir was omitted without justification.
\n\u201cGenerations of Kashmiri children have been condemned to a life of fear, violence, and repression under foreign occupation,\u201d he said, noting heir plight has worsened after India\u2019s illegal measures of 5 August 2019. \u201cWe strongly urge continued reporting on the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where human rights violations against children are, tragically, routine and continuing.\u201d
\nReferring to the recent Indian aggression of 6\u20137 May 2025 against Pakistan, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar said that civilian areas were deliberately targeted, resulting in the martyrdom of 15 children in blatant contravention of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law. Pakistan, he said, calls for a thorough investigation of these grave violations against children and their inclusion in the forthcoming CAAC (Children and Armed Conflict) report.
\nReacting to Ambassador Asim Iftikhar\u2019s sharp words, Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, while repeating New Delhi\u2019s usual allegations, claimed that Pakistan was a promoter of terrorism and was also involved in the recent attack against civilians in. Pahalgam. He also claimed that Kashmir was an integral and inalienable part of India, and will always remain so.
\nPakistani delegate Rabia Ijaz hit back immediately, accusing him of \u201cdistortion and denial\u201d and a desperate and futile attempt to mask India\u2019s crimes and culpability. Exercising her right of reply, Ms. Ijaz, a second secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said, \u201cWhile hurling baseless accusations, India conveniently forgets its abysmal record of grave violations against children in occupied Kashmir \u2014 violations confirmed by the Secretary General\u2019s annual reports and various human rights organizations.
\n\u201cThe tragedy of Kashmiri children growing up amid terror, trauma and repression is well known, a reality India cannot obscure with its patently false narratives.\u201d The Pakistani delegate also accused India of sponsoring terrorism and assassinations in Pakistan and across the globe, asserting that \u201cour children have been brutalized by terrorist attacks that bear India\u2019s fingerprints.\u201d
\nThe Army Public School massacre of 2014 claimed the lives of over 130 innocent children. Last month, a savage attack on a school bus in Khuzdar, Balochistan, claimed the lives of a number of innocent school going children and left dozens injured. \u201cWe have shared concrete evidence regarding terrorist outfits like the TTP and BLA \u2014 responsible for such atrocities \u2014 being sponsored and financed by India,\u201d she said.
\nContrary to its claim, Ms.Ijaz said India\u2019s systematic suppression of the people of Indian occupied Kashmir including their inalienable right to self-determination, was not its internal matter. \u201cJammu and Kashmir never was, nor is a so-called \u2018integral\u2019 part of India; it is an internationally recognized disputed territory under India\u2019s forcible occupation. UN documents including maps, and several resolutions of the Security Council on Jammu and Kashmir, that India continues to defy, attested to this reality.
\n\u201cWe call upon India to end its state sponsored terrorism, cease its oppression of Kashmiris and persecution of minorities, comply with its obligations under international law, the UN Charter and bilateral treaties, and engage in meaningful dialogue for the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS In the wake of \u201cbrutal surge\u201d in violence against children in 2024, Pakistan told the UN Security Council that youths living under foreign occupation are particularly vulnerable to widespread abuses, and called for steps to ensure their safety and protection. Speaking in the 15-member Council\u2019s debate on \u2018Children and Armed Conflict\u2019, Pakistan\u2019s UN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n