Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed 'tremendous sadness' at the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari. (AFP photo) Key Highlights UN human rights chief Zeid said he had sought to engage with India and Pakistan over the past two years regarding the situation in Kashmir on both sides of LoC He expressed "tremendous sadness" at the assassination of Shujaat Bukhari, who he called "a courageous human rights defender actively working for peace" GENEVA: UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has called for setting up an inquiry commission for a comprehensive investigation of the human rights situation in Kashmir. Zeid, who opened the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday with a global update on human rights concerns, said he had sought to engage with India and Pakistan over the past two years regarding the situation in Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control. However, both India and Pakistan refused to give his office "unconditional access" to Kashmir, which led his office to conduct remote monitoring, and the first report that was issued last week. The session runs from June 18 to July 6. Zeid also expressed "tremendous sadness" at the assassination of Shujaat Bukhari, who he called "a courageous human rights defender actively working for peace, including through his participation in Track II diplomacy seeking to help both India and Pakistan put an end to the violence". He reiterated his call for unconditional access. India will have to lobby hard as it opposes it. The UNHRC consists of 47 member states elected by the UN General Assembly for staggered three-year terms. India is not a member this year, though Pakistan is.<doc-sep>British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in a speech to the council Monday, sided with the United States in urging the council to stop reflexively criticizing Israel by keeping an agenda item devoted to human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a permanent item on the schedule. Calling it “disproportionate and damaging to the cause of peace,” he said Britain will vote against it every time it comes up.<doc-sep>70 years on: Is there any hope for Kashmir? (CNN) — The United Nations slammed both Indian and Pakistani authorities Thursday for alleged human rights violations in the disputed Kashmir region, with the body’s top rights official calling for an international inquiry into the claims. In its first-ever report on the human rights situation in Kashmir, which for decades has been divided between India and Pakistan, the UN details what it described as “human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC),” the de facto border between the nuclear-armed neighbors. While also critical of Pakistan, the main focus of the 49-page report is the human rights situation between July 2016 and April 2018 in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi forcefully rejected the claims, calling the report “fallacious, tendentious and motivated,” according to a statement from India’s foreign ministry. The Pakistani government, citing the main focus of the report, welcomed the call for an international inquiry. Denied unconditional access to the region by both the Indian and the Pakistan governments, the UN says it relied on mostly public information, drawing on research and monitoring by humanitarian organizations, journalists and human rights activists. Muslim-majority Kashmir is one of the world’s enduring geopolitical flashpoints, the epicenter of a rivalry between India and Pakistan that has its roots in the partition of the subcontinent after the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Since then, predominantly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan have fought three wars against each other – two of them over Kashmir. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Archive Photos/Getty Images Jawaharlal Nehru (left) and Mahatma Gandhi (right) deep in conversation in Bombay, now Mumbai, India, in August 1942. India had been under the rule of the British since 1858, but had been agitating for self-governance for years. The country finally gained independence in August 1947. Nehru was a prominent Indian politician who became independent India's first prime minister. Nehru was a close friend of Gandhi, whose non-violent movement was fundamental to India's attainment of independence. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Leading members of the Indian National Congress: Gandhi (left), prominent nationalist leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (center right) and independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhai Patel (right) during a meeting on March 2, 1938 in Haripura, India. Founded in 1885, the Indian National Congress is a political party that campaigned for the country's independence from Britain. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: AP Shown in an undated photo, Kasturba Gandhi was the wife of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with many other prominent women of these times, she fought for India's independence from the British. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Indian women volunteers carry flags and parade through the streets of Madras, south India, protesting for the country's self-governance on November 6, 1945. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (center), holds a press conference in Mumbai, India, in July 1946. The Muslim League formed in 1906 to look after the interests of India's minority Muslim community. Jinnah demanded the creation of a separate Muslim nation called Pakistan by the time Britain handed over its power. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Leading female members of the Muslim League attend a meeting on plans for India's independence in May 1946. Jinnah encouraged the involvement of women: "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you." Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Getty Images Armed rioters walk through the streets of Calcutta, now known as Kolkata, in August, 1946. Communal violence between Hindus and Muslims broke out during Direct Action Day, called by the Muslim League as a day of strikes, although it was open to different interpretations. The violence lasted for days and it is estimated that at least 4,000 died in Kolkata. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Vultures feed on corpses lying abandoned in an alleyway after the rioting between Hindus and Muslims in Kolkata in 1946. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Keystone/Getty Images Burnt-out shops line a street after the Hindu-Muslim rioting in Kolkata on August 28, 1946. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images A nurse with two children who were rescued and taken to a hospital during communal unrest in Amritsar, Punjab, north India, in March 1947. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Afghan traders leave Amritsar, Punjab, in the north of India with all their belongings after communal violence broke out between Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus in March 1947. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images Nehru (left), Lord Louis Mountbatten (center), Mountbatten's chief of staff Lord Ismay (center left) and Jinnah (right) negotiate the division of India in the capital of New Delhi in June 1947. In March 1947, Mountbatten became the viceroy of India, responsible for overseeing the handover of power from Britain back to its colony. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images Nehru, then-vice president of the Indian National Congress party, presents the national flag of the nation during a meeting of the constituent assembly in July 1947. Photos: Borders and bloodshed: The making of India and Pakistan PHOTO: Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty Images Nehru delivers his famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech and declares India's independence in the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi just before midnight on August 15, 1947.<doc-sep>Many allies have tried to convince the United States to remain in the council. Even many who agree with Washington's long standing criticisms of the body believe the United States should actively work to reform it from within, rather than disengaging.<doc-sep>
The Trump administration is poised to exit the United Nations' Human Rights Council. Officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, would announce the exit from the council on Tuesday. On Monday, the council's chief described the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy as "government-sanctioned child abuse." The Trump administration is poised to announce its departure from the United Nations' main human-rights body in its latest withdrawal from an international institution. Officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, would deliver the verdict on membership in the UN Human Rights Council in a joint appearance at the State Department on Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the decision. Haley threatened the pullout last year, citing longstanding US complaints that the council is biased against Israel. But on Monday, the UN's human-rights chief denounced the Trump administration for separating migrant children from their parents. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, said in remarks to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy was "government-sanctioned child abuse." The policy has resulted in almost 2,000 children being separated from their families at the US-Mexico border over six weeks. "The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable," he said. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has described the policy as a deterrence measure, saying last month: "If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally." Sessions on Monday addressed comparisons between the policy and Nazi Germany, saying, "It's a real exaggeration." Photos and audio of wailing children at migrant detention centers have emerged, portraying a grim environment that experts say can cause permanent psychological damage to those there.