The passage of time cannot invalidate an irreplaceable principle – the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
Chairman
World Forum for Peace & Justice

Istanbul, Turkey. November 11, 2025

“You cannot overcome the religious extremism if you keep supplying them proof that, for redressing injustice, peaceful secular processes are but a pretense or a trap. What principles and instruments do Kashmiris invoke for the redress of the wrongs inflicted on them? Not any conceived and inspired solely by their religion. They call for adherence to principles which are recognized by the Charter as basic to a peaceful and stable world order. The self-determination of peoples which have a defined and recognized individuality and fulfillment of international agreements constitute the sum and substance of their claim. The documents the Kashmiris rely upon were not drawn up in mosques. They were composed by western hands in the Security Council of the United Nations,” this was stated by Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, World Forum for Peace & Justice during the Ninth Annual International Congress, organized by ‘Justice Defenders Strategic Studies Center’ (ASSAM) at Sabahattin Zaim University, Istanbul, Turkey between November 8 & 9, 2025. The Congress was attended by scholars, academics, diplomats, politicians, journalists and jurists from 14 different countries.

ASSAM is a civil society organization, a think tank which aims to make determinations on an academic and political basis regarding current problems in world politics, especially the geography of Islamic Countries; and to propose solutions to international, regional and sub-regional conflicts.

Dr. Fai spokes on the subject of “Pathways to Resolving International Conflicts in the Struggle for Peace and Justice: Seeking Solution to the Crisis in South Asian region.”

Dr. Fai added that it defies comprehension that the respectful protection provided to the occupation regime in Kashmir by government and media is a most depressing example of the double standards that are maintained in upholding the values which were enshrined in the United Nations Charter. These values, though entirely secular, had enough resonance in them to turn them into a reliable counterforce against the irrational extremism which does not originate in religion. However, they have now been robbed of their appeal, turned into mere tools of policy by the world powers, invoked in one situation and completely forgotten in another, even if closely comparable. You cannot successfully fight a war against extremism while fertilizing the sense of injustice that is one of the roots of extremism.

“We are told that the big powers can only follow calculations of their interests against competing ones and cannot frame their policies regarding Kashmir in accordance with a moral view of situations arising in the world. If this is a doctrine of some kind of compulsion or inevitability bearing on them, it rests on a bogus contention. When the big powers themselves feel endangered or confronting an extremely serious situation, like Ukraine, what do they do except speak a moral language? Words come from their mouths dripping with morality. Let us not, therefore, be deluded by the kind of talk that would make us renounce an appeal to moral sentiments in explaining our struggle in Kashmir,” Dr. Fai enunciated.

Fai established that much is being made of the fact that seven and half decades have passed since the principled solution for Kashmir was formulated by the United Nations with almost universal support. Mere passage of time or the flight from realities cannot alter the fact that these resolutions remain unimplemented until today. The United Nations resolutions can never become obsolete or overtaken by events or changed circumstances. The passage of time cannot invalidate an enduring and irreplaceable principle – the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir. If passage of time were allowed to extinguish solemn international agreements, then the United Nations Charter should suffer the same fate as the resolutions on Kashmir. If non-implementation were to render an agreement defunct, then the Geneva Convention in twenty-first century in many countries is in no better state than these resolutions.

Fai explained that in any biography of the Kashmir dispute, one of the milestones mentioned is the recommendation made by the Security Council for a settlement on the basis of the will of the people as impartially ascertained through a plebiscite under the control of the United Nations. This is, of course, as it should be but there is the danger of the fact being obscured that the Security Council did not pull this recommendation out of thin air nor was it inspired by the idealistic promptings of either the Council or the leadership of the world power. If it were so, India would have been within her rights to question why the formula was held to be sacrosanct and immune from repudiation. But the proposition was squarely based on what the contestant themselves – India & Pakistan – demanded separately; the only thing the Council supplied was the mechanism of setting the state for, and organizing the required plebiscite.

Therefore, the attitude that needs to be thought in the context not only of Kashmir but of every major international conflict is that of turning back on the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter is not scripture or a book of morals but let us not forget, a multilateral treaty as binding on the largest or most powerful Member States of the world organization as on the smallest or weakest. The sanctity of international agreements is bound to remain one of the bases of a sane and stable international order. The Kashmir issues involve that principle most pointedly.

As a closing thought, Dr. Fai substantiated that the good news is that the globalization of news and broadcasting has brought human rights violations into the living rooms of more and more people, and most are horrified by the pictures. Only a handful of the inveterately cruel celebrate over human rights violations. There would have been no intervention in Kosovo, East Timor or Southern Sudan without television, and ditto for United States mediation in Northern Ireland. That is why many countries fiercely resist broadcast transparency in their domain. Indian Occupied Kashmir is the prime examples of that. That is why, New York based ‘Committee to Protect Journalists’ has said that news media in Kasmir is at the brink of extinction. Dr. Gregoy Staton, Chairman, Genocide Watch has said that Kashmir is on the brink of genocide. It is most befitting here to recall that sunshine is the best disinfectant for human rights violations as articulated by Justice Louis D. Brandeis, an American Supreme Court Justice, who wrote in 1913.

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is also the Secretary General
Washington-based
World Kashmir Awareness Forum