Palestine

Palestine-Campaign In 1948, during the Nakba (the Catastrophe) 700,000 Palestinians were expelled and 600 villages were destroyed by zionist forces. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 provided for the right of return of those who were expelled.  Over seven decades later the people of Palestine wait for the right of return to be realized.  In 1967, the Israeli state occupied Palestine’s West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza.  Today, the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory continues, along with the occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

This brutal occupation continues with violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, aka war crimes, including but not limited to illegal settlements by the occupier in the occupied territory, removing prisoners from the occupied territory to the occupiers territory, and failing to provide the rights and needs of the occupied people.

The Nation-State which is Israeli Basic Law openly proclaims not only that Israel is a Jewish state, and the state of all Jewish people, but that it is specifically NOT the state of all its citizens, and that ONLY the Jewish people have the right of self-determination in the state of Israel.  This crime of apartheid is prohibited under Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention of 1977, and is designated as a crime under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.  It is also prohibited under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of apartheid adopted by the UN in 1973.

It is in this regard of freedom, equality and justice, that Just Peace Advocates does its work, specifically related to realizing the right of return, exposing the apartheid nature of the zionist state, and the addressing of violations of international law (war crimes) and human right violations.

Our feature campaign for Palestine is in support of the Al Haq campaign #Gaza2020

Kashmir

Since August 5, 2019, 8 million people in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) have been under complete and indefinite lock down. Thus, the current situation is urgent in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

This includes restricted movement, access to food and medicines, all in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Conservative estimates were that 13,000 children were abducted by the Indian military in the first two months of the lock down, with the whereabouts of many not known. However, this is part of over a struggle for self-determination dating back over 70 years. In 1948, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 promised the people of Kashmir a plebiscite to realize their own self-determination.  Still the people of Kashmir wait for this plebiscite.

Immediate Release: Human Rights Delegation Returns Home with Commitment to Intensify Efforts for Kashmir.

Canadian Human Rights delegation returns home with commitment to intensify efforts for Kashmir. Read more

Toronto, December 30, 2019.  Members of a Canadian human rights delegation have just returned from Islamabad and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) with the vow to intensify their efforts on behalf of the suffering people of Indian Occupied Kashmir. Read more

Over 2K letters sent Request for immediate intervention of the UN in the Kashmir crisis. Read more

What you need to know

  1. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is recognized as disputed territory by the United Nations and under International Law;
  2. No state has the legal right to unilaterally change that status;
  3. India’s Prime Minister Modi’s August 5, 2019 declaration revoking articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution is illegal.
  4. Revoking Article 35A opens the floodgate for settler-colonial project of moving in the occupier’s own population into Jammu and Kashmir. Settler-colonization needs to be condemned and not imposed on people in the twenty-first century.

While the situation is now URGENT, the human rights and international law violations are not new. Over the last 20 years, Indian occupation troops have murdered more than 95,000 Kashmiris. Thousands of Kashmiri youth have simply disappeared. The use of pellet guns has resulted in thousands of children being blinded.

Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International as well as the UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) have documented the Indian state crimes against innocent Kashmiris. The UNHCHR’s latest report was released on July 8, 2019.

Canada played a leading role in formulating the UN Security Council resolution in 1948 calling for an internationally supervised referendum in Jammu and Kashmir, with Canadian General Andrew McNaughton serving as President of the United Nations Security Council,

The people of Jammu and Kashmir wait 71 years later for that referendum to determine their future promised them through UN Security Council resolutions.

Check out the following ACTION and RESOURCES