NEW YORK (UNEDITED): The participants of the International Kashmir Conference adopted the ‘New York Declaration’ unanimously. The conference which was organized by ‘International Educational Development’ at “Church Center of the United Nations” was attended among others by the academics, researchers, the delegates from various United Nations Missions, representatives of the United Nations NGO’s, social and civil rights activists, political analysts and prominent Americans of South Asian origin.
The conference resolved that:
1. the inalienable right to self-determination of peoples of Jammu and Kashmir as it stood on 14 August 1947, be recognized and instituted.
2. the people of Jammu and Kashmir must be an integral component of the ongoing peace process.
3. the pace of India-Pakistani dialogue in relation to Jammu and Kashmir should be accelerated;
4. all extra judicial laws, like Armed Forces Special Powers act (AFSPA) and the Public Safety Act (PSA) should be repealed, ensuring that peoples fundamental freedoms and basic rights are restored;
5. All political prisoners should be released and interrogation and torture centers closed;
6. Kashmir specific confidence building measures must be adopted, facilitating intra-Kashmiri dialogue;
7. both sides of the ceasefire line must be demilitarized;
8. the rights of all members of minorities in Jammu and Kashmir must be protected. All those persons who have been displaced from Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 should be encouraged to return. The members of the Pandit community displaced in the recent past should be facilitated to return and their rehabilitation guaranteed.
9. the international community should be urged to facilitate dialogue among all stakeholders as well as highlighting human rights abuses wherever they occur throughout the state of Jammu and Kashmir
Those who spoke during the conference included: Mr. Ramsey Clark, former United States Attorney General; Barrister Suchitra Vijayan, writer, lawyer and a political theorist; Dr. Karen Parker, IED Delegate of the United Nations; Ms. Victoria Schofield, British author, biographer and military historian; Mr. Khurram Parvez, Human rights activist from Kashmir; Ms. Nasreen Sheikh, Educationalist, Instructor, Administrator, Azad Kashmir; Dr. Zahid Bukhari, founding Director of the Muslims in American Public Square (MAPS); Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness; Dr. Imtiaz Khan, Senior Vice President, Kashmiri American Council; Dr. Khalid J. Qazi, Clinical Professor, Sisters of Charity Hospital, Buffalo; Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, President, World Kashmir Awareness; Mr. Saleem Akhtar, National Director, American Muslim Alliance; Sardar Sawar Khan, former Advisor to the Prime Minister Azad Kashmir; Sardar Zarif Khan, Washington, D.C. and Sardar Imtiaz Khan, New Jersey.
Ms. Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Executive Editor, Kashmir Times, could not attend the conference because of the death of her father, Ved Bhasin Ji but her paper was read out at the conference by Ms. Shaikh, graduate student at George Mason University. Prof. Zafar Khan, an academic & scholar from Britain and international spokes-person of JKLF also could not make it but his paper was read out by Ms. Ayala Khan.
(Full report to follow)
For any information, please contact Dr. Fai at: gnfai2003@yahoo.com