Pakistan Called Out for Ethnic Cleansing in PoJK, PoGB at UN Rights Council

Geneva: At the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), speaker Fidencie Izabayo, from an international NGO, Reveil communautaire d'assistance aux victims, based in Burundi, raised alarm over what she described as Pakistan's "grave and deliberate crime against humanity" in Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB).  

Izabayo called out Pakistan for pursuing systematic demographic engineering aimed at erasing indigenous identities and violating international human rights law. 

Addressing the Council, she condemned the imprisonment and torture of peaceful activists such as Baba Jan, who she said were punished simply for defending their homes. Families, she noted, continue to be displaced as Pakistan seizes land under the guise of development and transfers it to outsiders and military-linked corporations. "The 2018 Gilgit-Baltistan Order, imposed without local consent, was highlighted as a tool that strips communities of their land rights and political voice," she stated. 

She further alleged that Pakistan is attempting to alter the region's ethnic climate by settling Sunni populations in Shia-majority areas, calling it a form of ethnic cleansing in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. 

The statement drew attention to the violent suppression of peaceful protests, including firing on the Traders Action Committee in Hunza near the PoGB-China border and the humiliation of police personnel protesting in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur over welfare grievances. Protests sparked by displacement for the construction of the Diamer Bhasha Dam in PoGB were also cited as evidence of Pakistan's disregard for local voices. 

According to her testimony, communities in Skardu, Gilgit, and Shigar live in fear as their lands, forests, and livelihoods are seized. She pointed out that 7,000 kanals of land in Shigar were illegally transferred to outsiders, eluding traditional laws and human dignity. 

Calling the situation "a human rights crisis of utmost importance," Izabayo urged the UNHRC to demand immediate and unhindered access for international NGOs and fact-finding missions to PoJK and PoGB. 

ALSO READ: Nepal Curfew Lifted: Country Returns to Normalcy After Days of Deadly Protests