ISTANBUL: Chairman of the World Forum for Peace and Justice, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, has said that the passage of time cannot invalidate the inalienable right to self-determination guaranteed to the people of Jammu and Kashmir by the United Nations.
Dr Fai was addressing the Ninth Annual International Congress organized by the Justice Defenders Strategic Studies Center (ASSAM) at Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul, Türkiye, held on November 8–9, 2025. The conference was attended by academics, diplomats, journalists, jurists, and scholars from 14 countries.
Speaking on “Pathways to Resolving International Conflicts in the Struggle for Peace and Justice: Seeking Solution to the Crisis in South Asia,” Dr Fai said that Kashmiris’ struggle is rooted not in religion but in universally accepted international principles of justice, peace, and the right to self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter. “The documents Kashmiris rely upon were not drawn up in mosques; they were composed by Western hands in the Security Council of the United Nations,” he said.
Dr Fai decried the hypocrisy of major world powers that selectively invoke moral principles, supporting justice in some regions while remaining silent on the atrocities in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “You cannot fight extremism while fertilizing the sense of injustice that breeds it,” he said, adding that the world’s double standards have robbed the UN Charter’s secular values of their moral appeal.
He said the UN resolutions on Kashmir remain valid despite the passage of seven and a half decades, as no lapse of time can extinguish solemn international agreements. “If time can nullify the UN’s pledges on Kashmir, then the UN Charter itself should lose meaning,” he asserted.
Highlighting the continuing media blackout in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Fai cited reports by the Committee to Protect Journalists that local media there is “on the brink of extinction” and referred to Dr Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch, who has warned that Kashmir is “on the brink of genocide.” He said India’s suppression of media and denial of transparency are deliberate efforts to conceal its crimes against humanity in the occupied territory.
