International media has reported that the Indian military forces have started cease fire violations on the Cease Fire Line (commonly known as Line of Control) by firing and shelling into Azad Jammu and Kashmir territory inflicting civilian casualties.

We demand that arbitrary and unlawful detention must cease forthwith and that all prisoners released including the release of Masrat Zahra, a 26 year old award-winning photo journalist accused of “uploading anti-national posts [on Facebook] with criminal intentions to induce the youth” and booked under the Indian Penal Code. Masrat’s work as a freelance photo journalist has appeared previously in international media such as The Washington Post, Al-Jazeera and in Indian media such as Quint, and Caravan, among others that include Gowhar Geelani and Peerzada Ashiq.

Post 5th August 2019 Indian troops have killed 100 youth. The killing of Kashmiri youth must stop immediately. The cease fire violations must be brought to an end immediately. It is heartening that the UN Secretary General António Guterres has asked the Indian authorities to release the political prisoners. We support the UN Secretary General and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners.

The European Union (EU) is based on a strong commitment to promoting and protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law worldwide. Human Rights are at the heart of EU relations with other countries and regions. We urge the European Union via its external action service (EAS) that any trade talks with India should be mindful that human rights and trade are two sides of the same coin. We further urge that the EU actively uses the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as a substantive normative legal framework which obliges transnational companies and or other types of business enterprises to comply under international law with a view to foster accountability and transparency of all businesses thus upholding compliance while safeguarding Human Rights. It is greatly concerning that India attempts to keep prisoners in confinement (including the young Kashmiris) and bring about a planned demographic change, as the occupying power, this should be thwarted and discussed in any upcoming trade talks for this amounts to ethnic cleansing and that is prohibited under the international and humanitarian law.

We implore upon the UK Government and members of both the Houses of Parliament to use all available means, diplomatic and economic, to ensure a resolution of this long pending conflict together with ensuring the promotion and protection of Kashmiri youth’s human rights and engage the Commonwealth in the process.

We plead with UN Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to protect the Kashmiri youth especially in the context of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

We urge the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) to address the gross human rights abuses against the children (boys and girls) and young people of IOJK.

We ask the Indian government to allow international organisations to examine the prison conditions under which the detained Kashmiri prisoners and young people are held, to commence dialogue with a view to achieve the release of all who are incarcerated simply because they demand the right to self-determination.