Bilawal calls urges monitoring crimes against women in territories under foreign occupation, including Kashmir

UNITED NATIONS, March 08 (SABAH): Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has underscored the need for establishing a monitoring mechanism for crimes committed against women and girls in territories under foreign occupation, including Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, so as to hold the occupation forces accountable.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said this during a high-level debate in the UN Security Council on ‘Women, Peace and Security (WPS) towards the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325’. That resolution provides for a range of measures aimed at women’s inclusion in preventing, managing and resolving conflicts.

He said the most egregious atrocities and crimes against women and girls occur in situations of foreign occupation and suppression of the right to self-determination to peoples.

Bilawal added that the women, peace and security strategy would remain incomplete so long as the acute dimension of the plight of women under foreign occupation was not addressed frontally and vigorously. “Above all,” he said, “occupation forces must be held accountable.”

The foreign minister maintained the very object of violence in situation of foreign occupation was to suppress the civilian population which is manifested most vividly in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

“To ensure implementation of the WPS strategy, it is essential to establish a monitoring mechanism for crimes committed against women and girls in territories under foreign occupation, including Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.