India’s Crimes Against Humanity and Application of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P): Prospects and Challenges in the Case of Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine is developed to stop genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Since 2005, the UN operationalized it in Libya, Yemen, Liberia, Syria, South Sudan, and Congo. However, to address India’s genocide in Kashmir, the framework is contested and politicized. So the paper test the parameters of R2P and its possible implementation. It asks (a) Why the UN has failed to operationalize R2P in Kashmir. (b) What are the underlying reasons and how realpolitik is undermining R2P implementation? It argues that India is involved in a systematic and sustained genocide of the Kashmiri population and illegal settlements of the Hindu community. Nevertheless, major powers’ geo-economics and geopolitical interests, a paradigm shift in the global order where India is placed at the heart of U.S. hedging strategy against China, and New Delhi's sustained role in regional and global politics prevent the international community from invoking R2P.

Keywords:

• Kashmir conflict
• Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
• genocide
• realpolitik
• India-Pakistan Rivalry
• Indo-Pacific

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Funding

No funding was received to carry out this research.

Notes on contributors

Mehmood Hussain

Mehmood Hussain is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Department of International Relations, University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Muzaffarabad Pakistan. He writes on Chinese Foreign Policy, China–Pakistan Relations, South Asian Regional Security, Kashmir Conflict, Regional Connectivity and Integration, Civil–Military Relations, and CPEC. E-mail: [email protected]