Geneva, (Unib Rashid) __ The speakers at a panel discussion held here on the sidelines of the 61st Session of the UN Human Rights Council have unanimously urged the international community particularly the UN to recognize the fact that sustainable climate action requires restoring political agency to subjugated peoples.
The panel discussion titled “Climate Justice, Human Rights and the Right to Self-Determination: An Intersectional Framework” brought together environmental experts, international human rights advocates, and legal scholars from different parts of the globe including Altaf Hussain Wani, Chairman of the Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR); environmentalist Talha Tufail Bhatti of the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS); Abdul Rehman, Research Associate at the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CiSS) AJK; and Advocate Parvez Shah, Secretary General of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). The discussion was moderated by Ghulam Muhammad Safi, Convener of the APHC
The panelists on the occasion deliberated on how the denial of right to self-determination exacerbates climate vulnerability in disputed territories such as Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
At UNHRC Sidelines, Experts Link Climate Justice to Political Rights of Subjugated Peoples. pic.twitter.com/Lk7nrJ9sm7
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In his opening remarks, Ghulam Muhammad Safi who moderated the event framed the conversation around the layered vulnerabilities experienced by the people in occupied territories .
The climate crisis, he said, does not occur in a vacuum. “When military occupation denies peoples the right to self-determination, it simultaneously strips them of the capacity to protect their environments”, he said, adding that climate justice cannot be achieved without addressing structural violence and political domination.
KIIR chief Altaf Hussain Wani, while emphasizing the legal foundations connecting environmental sovereignty to human right, said, “Article 1 of the ICCPR and ICESCR guarantees peoples the right to freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.
He said that when a territory is under military occupation, this right is systematically violated.
Similarly, he pointed out that the people of Jammu and Kashmir reeling under Indian occupation cannot determine their political status nor they can determine how to manage their glaciers, forests, or water resources in the face of catastrophic climate change.
On the occasion, environmental researcher Talha Tufail Bhatti presented detailed analysis on the Himalayan region’s fragility.
“Jammu and Kashmir sits at the crown of South Asia’s water tower—the glaciers that feed the Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum rivers support 1.5 billion people. Yet instead of climate adaptation, we see militarization accelerating ecological destruction,” Bhatti explained.
Presenting his research paper Abdul Rehman from CiSS AJK, highlighted the consequences of the 2019 abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.
“The unilateral dismantling of J&K’s autonomous status opened the floodgates to extractivism without consent,” Rehman noted. “New mining laws targeting lithium and uranium, industrial policies favoring external corporations, and the erosion of local environmental regulations—all imposed without democratic participation—represent a systematic violation of the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.”
Advocate Parvez Shah addressed the legal implications of what panelists termed “climate apartheid” and “environmental violence.
Shah said that local populations facing displacement due to glacial retreat or erratic precipitation are often treated as security threats rather than rights-bearing subjects entitled to climate reparations
The 2019 communications blackouts and ongoing internet restrictions, he noted, have destroyed early warning systems and silenced Kashmiri voices in global climate discourse.”
Urging the international community and UN mechanisms to recognize that sustainable climate solutions require the restoration of political agency to subjugated peoples, the panelists emphasized that without dismantling occupations and respecting the right to self-determination, climate action risks becoming “yet another mechanism of domination”—extracting resources from vulnerable territories while abandoning their inhabitants to ecological collapse.
“The peoples of Jammu and Kashmir must be granted the autonomy to steward their environments and protect their ecological heritage,” they added.
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