International Law and Self Determination: A Case for Kashmir’s Special Status

Abstract

Kashmir has been under illegal Indian Occupation since the independence of the Indian sub-continent from the British Raj. The UN has been calling for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue, but India has had evaded the peace process despite taking the matter to the UN itself. India has been violating international law and committing human rights abuses in the previously autonomous region of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). On August 5, 2019 the Indian government revoked Article 370 along with Article 35A of the Constitution of India in a bid to bring comprehensive political and demographic changes to the region. Legal and governance-based logic floated by India cannot justify its act of unilateral revocation of the special status of Kashmir which is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan and cannot be decided without the mutual consent of all the claimants. Although India has been abusing human rights for decades, altering Kashmir demographically is the most tyrannical step taken by the Indian government as it is a step to depriving the Kashmiris of their right to land and self-determination. This paper builds on the illegality of debate in international law concerning India’s revocation of Kashmir’s special status.