Pakistan regrets Kashmir’s omission in UN report on child rights violations

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistani envoy on Thursday expressed regret that the plight of children in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir was omitted without justification in the UN Secretary General’s latest report.

Speaking in the 15-member Council’s debate on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that record high child rights violations were leaving “countless young lives maimed, starved, burned, frozen to death, or weakened by severe malnutrition.”

In this regard, he drew attention to, among others hotspots, the suffering of children in war-shattered Gaza and Indian-occupied Kashmir.

At the outset, the Pakistani envoy echoes the deep concern expressed in the UN Secretary General’s latest report, which details 41,370 verified grave violations against children in 2024, representing a shocking 25% increase compared to the previous year.

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’s report.

And while welcoming this year’s removal of references to Pakistan as a situation of concern — “a long-overdue correction” — the Pakistani envoy expressed regret that the previously documented plight of children in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir was omitted without justification.

“Generations of Kashmiri children have been condemned to a life of fear, violence, and repression under foreign occupation,” he said, noting heir plight has worsened after India’s illegal measures of 5 August 2019.

Referring to the recent Indian aggression of 6–7 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.

Reacting to Ambassador Asim Iftikhar’s sharp words, Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, repeated New Delhi’s usual allegations.

Pakistani delegate Rabia Ijaz hit back immediately, accusing him of “distortion and denial” and a desperate and futile attempt to mask India’s crimes and culpability.

Exercising her right of reply, Ms. Ijaz, a second secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said, “While hurling baseless accusations, India conveniently forgets its abysmal record of grave violations against children in occupied Kashmir — violations confirmed by the Secretary General’s annual reports and various human rights organizations.