ਸਰਬੱਤ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਫ਼ਾਉਂਡੇਸ਼ਨ

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Parliamentarians for National Self-Determination (PNSD)

This cross-party parliamentary group was launched at Westminster in 2006 with the Right Honorable Lord Nazir Ahmed, now Baron Ahmed, as Chair and Ranjit Singh Srai as Administrative Secretary and has all party support from the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru as well as from Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats. Annual conferences have been held since 2006 [1]-[11] and reported below, with the most recent listed first.

 

While previously, human rights all party groups already existed in Parliament, with notable publications to their credit [12], [13], PNSD emphasizes that as  Article 1 of the UN Charter’s  Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states, human rights cannot truly be safeguarded unless a People are able to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination. In particular,  for example, this has been denied to the Kashmiris, despite UN resolutions, the Sikhs of Punjab, and other minorities in India, who’s Government while signing up to the Covenant has at the same time  sought to be exempt from it, simultaneously suppressing self-determination movements in these regions, often by blatantly suspending the right to life.  This reservation has been opposed by the international community, notably by France, Germany, the Netherlands and Pakistan, but has not been able to prevent incidents of genocide, such as the massacres of Sikhs in Delhi and other places in 1984.

 

The work of the PNSD focuses on conflict resolution on the basis of  Article 1 of the UN Charter, so that tragedies such as the aforementioned can be prevented from recurring, and perpetrators held to account.  It hears from academics and experts from the regions affected, sometimes at first hand during parliamentary events, but also through their published work, examples of which are cited below [14]-[16].


[1] 2017 PNSD Conference Report

[1a] 2016 PNSD Conference Report

[2a] 2015 PNSD Conference Forward

[2] 2015 PNSD Conference Report

[3] 2014 PNSD Conference Report

[4] 2013 PNSD Conference Report

[5] 2012 PNSD Conference Report

[6] 2011 PNSD Conference Report

[7] 2010 PNSD Conference Report

[8] 2009 PNSD Conference Report

[9] 2008 PNSD Conference Report

[10] 2007 PNSD Conference Report

[11] 2006 PNSD Conference Report

[12] November 84 HRAG Report, House of Commons Library

[13] Self-Determination Paper, House of Commons Library

[14] Amar Singh Chahal, House of Lords 2016

[15] Karnail Singh Peer-Mohammad, House of Lords 2014

[16] Dr Iqtidar Cheema, USCIRF, Constitutional and Legal Challenges Faced by Religious Minorities in India