World Children Day 2022: Stop Child Abuse on Kashmiri Children

 Every year on November 20, World Children's Day known as International Children's Day is celebrated to foster global children's rights understanding, raise children's education, and enhance their well-being. This year the theme of the day is Inclusion, For Every Child which means every child matters apart from their race, color, or faith.

Children are fragile beings that need love and protection. There are still some places in the world where no one can imagine bringing up their child. Children should play with their friends and live a carefree life. But that’s not the case for the kids of Jammu and Kashmir who are constantly watched, put under lockdowns, and are more vulnerable to abuse by Indian troops in the IOJK.

One of the biggest unresolved conflicts in the history of the UN is the ongoing conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. The persistent and systemic human rights violations committed by the Indian army against Jammu and Kashmir's population are well-known and documented. Due to the presence of 700,000 troops and the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is the most armed region in the world, children there are in danger of experiencing all six of the grave violations against children listed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

For more than three decades disturbing crimes have been
committed against children in Jammu and Kashmir throughout this violent conflict. Mockery on that is that India still does not recognize the legal framework for armed conflicts, whether they are international or not. India has signed several international agreements and treaties aimed at protecting children, yet its intolerance has remained unabated when it comes to Kashmir.

Since India invaded Kashmir, three generations of Kashmiris have grown up, but they are without hope for the future. On this World Children’s Day, children's rights and human rights activists around the globe should choose IOJK children and not ignore the situation in Kashmir and give India free reign to commit all manner of atrocities against defenseless children, women, and young people. This needs to be stopped and highlighted even more now as there is no end to Indian brutality and is increasing every day.

The Indian soldiers and police have assaulted, attacked, and harassed children regardless of their age, depriving them of the fundamental rights guaranteed by international law or outlined in India's constitution. Indian army has brutally kidnapped, harassed, and killed Kashmiri teenagers while depriving them of an education and their right to work to support their families as half of them are orphans. Their mental health is impacted negatively. It has even gotten worse after Articles 370 and 35a were repealed in Indian-occupied Kashmir, which is worrying and alarming for the whole world.

904 children were among the 95,791 Kashmiris killed by Indian soldiers between January 1, 1989, and December 31, 2021, according to a study published by the Kashmir Media Service's Research Section. The celebration of children's rights on World Children's Day gives everyone a motivational starting point for efforts that will improve the world for all children, including those in Kashmir. Since they were little, these kids had only heard the sounds of Indian guns, heard the cries of the wounded, and seen weapons and ammunition ponied at them or their families.

The UNCRC outlines the fundamental rights that all children have. These rights include the freedom from exploitation, assault, and negligence as well as the right to life, education, health, and growth. States Parties are required to uphold the rights outlined in the current Convention for every child under their jurisdiction, without discrimination of any kind, regardless of the child's or his or her family's or legal guardian's race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national, ethnic, or social origin, property, disability, birth, or other social standings, as stated in Article 2 of the Convention. It is obvious that this norm is being broken by the Indian administration.

Let's just all hope for a better tomorrow and pray that IOJK children will one day take a breath of free air and will live a normal carefree life as they deserve.