Lord Ahmed will also ask that the UN should set up a special Criminal Tribunal under International Law to investigate abuses of human rights in Indian Occupied Kashmir and un marker graves 2, Must not allow India to join Security Council until it complies with its UN Security Council Resolutions of 1948 and 1949 . President of the United States and the Secretary General UN should appoint a special envoy for Kashmir. The Un must demand that both India and Pakistan should include Kashmiris in any future talks to resolve the Kashmir Issue through peaceful means.
 

                             Lord Ahmed Chairman of the APPG on Kashmir and Chairman of the

PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION

This debate has never been so important since the historic steps taken by the UN and the international community in adopting not only the Universal Declaration of Human Rights back in 1948 but also the subsequent body of international humanitarian law, including the 1966 Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic and Social Rights, both of which put the right of self determination at the forefront of human rights. The primacy of the collective human right of self determination - upon which the protection of all individual human rights ultimately depends - has been recognised by the UN itself. International Law offers hope and legitimacy to those nations, many of which are represented here today, who seek peacefully and democratically to determine their own destiny within the community of nations.

It is incumbent on the  international community to make human rights the centre piece of policy and decision making so that the security, dignity and prosperity of all the nations and peoples of the world is protected and so that civilised values can be translated in to real peace and progress for all of humanity. In particular, aid and trade programmes should be designed to promote those who comply with international humanitarian standards and to isolate those who do not.

We should applaud the efforts of human rights defenders across the world whose courageous actions, often in the face of open threats to their very lives, aim to protect the weak and vulnerable against wanton repression; we salute those who have given their lives in the cause of human rights and justice. We further congratulate Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other NGOs which continue to put human rights at the top of the international agenda.

The international community must, in the interests of future generations as well the current victims of human rights abuses, take action to end the immunity offered by various states to those who have carried out massive violations as a matter of state policy. We condemn those violations and see them as an unacceptable threat to international peace and security. If necessary, where the relevant states refuse to act, the international community should take direct action to punish the guilty in accordance with international law by setting up special criminal tribunals such as those dealing with the violations in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.. The Un must set up a special Criminal Tribunal under International Law to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the mass graves in Indian Occupied Kashmir

The UN as well as individual states and regional blocks, such as the EU, to adopt self determination as a key driver to resolve conflicts in a peaceful and democratic manner, in accordance with international law. Current conflicts and disputed territories such as those in Palestine, Kashmir, Kosovo as well as many others cannot be resolved without the consent of the governed being freely determined and respected. The UN has itself set a precedent in East Timor by organising a plebiscite of the people and ensuring the outcome was repected. Other recent examples include the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, as well as the re-unification of Germany. It is time that these standards are applied uniformly in order to resolve all of the bloody and otherwise intractable conflicts facing humanity today.

Self determination represents perhaps the only orderly, lawful, peaceful and democratic means of resolving these long standing conflicts and it is incumbent upon the international community to take effective steps to implement that right as a matter of international law. The so called 'war on terror' is not and has never been an excuse to sideline those peoples who have a lawful claims to their national rights under international law and we call on all concerned to look at the underlying causes of conflict in order to take forward a collective desire for peaceful resolution.