MIRPUR (AJK) , Mar 11 (APP):The sustainable climate action cannot be achieved without restoring political agency to subjugated peoples, including those in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the speakers have said during a panel discussion held in Geneva on the sidelines of the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The discussion, titled “Climate Justice, Human Rights and the Right to Self-Determination: An Intersectional Framework,” brought together environmental experts, legal scholars and human rights advocates argued that communities living under disputed or occupied territories faced heightened environmental vulnerability.
The participants said the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be allowed to exercise autonomy to manage their natural resources and protect their ecological heritage, according to a statement released to the media here on Wednesday.
The panel featured Altaf Hussain Wani, chairman of the Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR); environmental researcher Talha Tufail Bhatti of the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS); Abdul Rehman, research associate at the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CiSS) AJK; and advocate Parvez Shah, secretary general of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). The discussion was moderated by Ghulam Muhammad Safi, convener of the APHC.
Opening the discussion, Safi said the climate crisis could not be viewed in isolation from political conditions in disputed regions.
“When military occupation denies peoples the right to self-determination, it simultaneously strips them of the capacity to protect their environments,” he said, adding that climate justice could not be achieved without addressing structural political constraints.
Wani argued that international law linked environmental governance with the right of peoples to determine their political future. He cited Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guaranteed the right of peoples to pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
He said people in Jammu and Kashmir under Indian administration were unable to determine to manage their natural resources such as glaciers, forests and water systems amid the growing impacts of climate change.
Bhatti presented research on the ecological fragility of the Himalayan region, noting that glaciers in the area feed major rivers including the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, which support about 1.5 billion people across South Asia.
“Instead of climate adaptation, we are witnessing increased militarisation that accelerates ecological destruction,” he said.
Abdul Rehman of CiSS AJK highlighted environmental consequences following India’s 2019 revocation of Articles 370 and 35A of its constitution, which had granted limited autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
He said new mining regulations, industrial policies favouring external corporations and weakening local environmental protections were introduced without local participation.
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