(Bradford East) (Lab)
[V]:...When striking trade deals across the world, many nations use
trade to influence human rights policy, yet there is concern that,
faced with the need to strike quick deals to demonstrate success in
the aftermath of Brexit, the Government will water down human
rights protections, particularly when China,
Indiaand Russia—all countries with a poor record
on human rights—rank within the UK’s top 25 export and import
markets.
China’s deliberate evasion of human rights is well known, with
the mass detention, torture and mistreatment of the Uyghur
Muslims in particular, along with controls on their daily lives.
Russia is also notorious for its weak human rights record, lack
of accountability for those in public office and widespread
torture and persecution.
While any abuse of human rights is abhorrent and must be
challenged, the Indian Government’s human rights
abuses in Indian-occupied
Kashmir—well-documented by several human rights organisations,
including the United Nations—is particularly important for my
constituents in relation to any trade deals with
India. As we speak, the region is now almost 10
months into a brutal lockdown that has seen cities, towns and
villages placed under what is in effect a siege, with food, water
and medicines restricted from entering and civilians restricted
from leaving. This lockdown has also seen communications cut on
an unprecedented scale, which has prevented any spread of
information and left security forces even more unaccountable.
With a need for reliable information to restrict the spread of
coronavirus, this electronic curfew causes yet more harm.
Sadly, this experience is nothing new for the sons and daughters
of Kashmir. They are routinely subjected to persecution,
discrimination and heavy-handed tactics by
Indian security forces, with a disproportionate
use of force, including the indiscriminate firing of live
ammunition and the routine use of pellet guns that have left
hundreds of Kashmiris, including children, blind for life. That
is to say nothing of the repressive control measures, rapes,
tortures and indiscriminate detentions that take place across the
region at the hands of the security forces. What is scandalous is
that those committing these human rights abuses are immune from
prosecution under the Indian Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act, rendering them in effect untouchable,
despite their crimes.
The Indian Government also continue to deny the
Kashmiris their right to self-determination, as was mandated by a
United Nations Security Council resolution that is now well over
70 years old. There is no prospect any time soon of the vote that
will allow them to shape their own destiny, particularly
following the illegal decision to revoke articles 370 and 35A. In
effect, that decision repeals what little autonomy Kashmir held
in its position as a disputed territory at the heart of an
unresolved conflict. What the Indian Government
are doing in Indian-occupied Kashmir is vile and
abhorrent, and it must be called out and challenged.
We cannot let our desire for trade allow us to ignore this. The
Government must not be afraid to put human rights and high
standards before trade, especially when it concerns those
nations, such as India with whom we share strong
historical, cultural and social ties. In this region in
particular, we have both a historical and moral duty, and as is
the case with all human rights abuses, it is an international
issue, not a domestic one or a bilateral one, that we cannot and
must not ignore...
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