Press release
On May 4, 2023, NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson asked Minister Joly, if Canada would attend G20 meetings in Kashmir. The Minister did not respond to McPherson’s direct question.
This follows the members of the Kashmir Scholars Consultative Action Network along with 50+ organizations from around the world, 25+ which have members in Canada, which urged Canada and other G20 members to withdraw from G20 meetings planned for Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir (IAJK) (including those reportedly being held on May 11 and May 22-24, 2023).
Over the last day, close to 500 letters have been sent by individuals asking Canada to immediately comply with its duties under international law and cooperate to end the Indian state’s serious breaches of peremptory legal norms in IAJK – including the illegal occupation, annexation, and colonization of IAJK and the commission of atrocity crimes and grave human rights violations in the region.
India’s claims that IAJK is its “integral part” and its attempts to make permanent its occupation of IAJK constitute illegal acts of annexation. India’s authoritarian domination of the people of IAJK and denial of the exercise of their right to self-determination constitute illegal colonialism. India has repressed Kashmiri people with impunity, including through well-documented, rampant war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indian forces over many decades. Despite knowledge of such violations (which are ongoing), Canada and rest of the international community has failed to secure accountability and access to justice for the people of Kashmir.
The already dire humanitarian and human rights situation in Kashmir has substantially deteriorated since August 5, 2019 when Indian authorities illegally dismantled guarantees protecting the territorial and cultural integrity of IAJK and its people’s rights to their land, educational access, and local employment. Settler colonialism has been sped up through expropriation of land, destruction of common and private property, various forms of illegal and invasive surveillance, extraction of resources, ecological destruction, and the rapid expansion of forced and illegal demographic change in favor of non-local Hindus.
Canada’s attendance in India’s G20 meetings will go beyond the international community’s historic failures in IAJK by violating its duty not to aid or assist in serious breaches of peremptory norms through direct complicity in India’s illegal occupation, annexation, colonization, atrocity crimes, grave human rights violations and impunity in IAJK. Canada and other G20 countries would be committing such serious violations of international law despite the genocidal climate in which Kashmiris – a defenseless, marginalized and demonized group – face imminent, material risk of mass atrocities.
Canada is urged to comply with its duty to promote through joint and separate actions the realization of the democratic and human rights of the people of IAJK, critically including the right to self-determination, and to render assistance to the UN to hasten an end to India’s colonization of IAJK.
Canada must not normalize the genocidal and settler colonial policies of India. India is an ethno-nationalist occupying power, a failed democracy, trying to white wash its crimes against the Kashmiri people by holding the G20 meetings in an internationally disputed territory. Canada must not be a party to these meetings planned in Kashmir.
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contact: info@justpeaceadvocates.ca
This letter was also sent to Canada’s Foreign Minister
May 10, 2023
Mélanie Joly
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Dear Minister Joly
Last week NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson asked you, Minister Joly, if Canada would attend G20 meetings in Kashmir. You did not respond to her direct question. Canadians are letting you know that you need to not attend, and Canada needs to withdraw from these meetings in Indian occupied Kashmir.
The members of the Kashmir Scholars Consultative Action Network along with 50+ organizations from around the world, 25+ which have members in Canada, have urged Canada and other G20 members to withdraw from G20 meetings planned for Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir (IAJK) (including those reportedly being held on May 11 and May 22-24, 2023).
We join in urging Canada to immediately comply with your duties under international law and cooperate to end the Indian state’s serious breaches of peremptory legal norms in IAJK – including the illegal occupation, annexation, and colonization of IAJK and the commission of atrocity crimes and grave human rights violations in the region.
India’s claims that IAJK is its “integral part” and its attempts to make permanent its occupation of IAJK constitute illegal acts of annexation. India’s authoritarian domination of the people of IAJK and denial of the exercise of their right to self-determination constitute illegal colonialism. India has repressed Kashmiri people with impunity, including through well-documented, rampant war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indian forces over many decades. Despite knowledge of such violations (which are ongoing), Canada and rest of the international community has failed to secure accountability and access to justice for the people of Kashmir.
The already dire humanitarian and human rights situation in Kashmir has substantially deteriorated since August 5, 2019 when Indian authorities illegally dismantled guarantees protecting the territorial and cultural integrity of IAJK and its people’s rights to their land, educational access, and local employment. Settler colonialism has been sped up through expropriation of land, destruction of common and private property, various forms of illegal and invasive surveillance, extraction of resources, ecological destruction, and the rapid expansion of forced and illegal demographic change in favor of non-local Hindus.
Canada’s attendance in India’s G20 meetings will go beyond the international community’s historic failures in IAJK by violating your duty not to aid or assist in serious breaches of peremptory norms through direct complicity in India’s illegal occupation, annexation, colonization, atrocity crimes, grave human rights violations and impunity in IAJK. You would be committing such serious violations of international law despite the genocidal climate in which Kashmiris – a defenseless, marginalized and demonized group – face imminent, material risk of mass atrocities.
We urge Canada to comply with your duty to promote through joint and separate actions the realization of the democratic and human rights of the people of IAJK, critically including the right to self-determination, and to render assistance to the UN to hasten an end to India’s colonization of IAJK.
We urge Canada to not normalize the genocidal and settler colonial policies of India. India is an ethno-nationalist occupying power, a failed democracy, trying to white wash its crimes against the Kashmiri people by holding the G20 meetings in an internationally disputed territory. Canada must not be a party to these meetings planned in Kashmir.
Sincerely,
Just Peace Advocates
Canadians for Peace and Justice in Kashmir
Canadian Friends of Kashmir
Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
cc: Prime Minister Trudeau, all elected federal members of Parliament
For more information see Kashmir Critical Studies Network, and take further action withStandWithKashmir
