Human Rights: A Perspective from Kashmir
Anas Razzaq at UNICEF, contributing to discussions on child protection — highlighting the vital connection between safeguarding children’s rights and advancing broader human rights principles.
by Anas Razzaq
Human rights are often spoken of as a privilege — something discussed in classrooms, conferences, or policy papers. But not everywhere. In some parts of the world, human rights are not abstract principles; they are tied directly to survival. In Palestine, in Sudan, in Afghanistan, and in many other conflict-affected regions, the ability to live with dignity, safety, and freedom is not taken for granted — it is fought for every single day.
I come from Kashmir, a place where human rights are not a luxury but a necessity for survival. For Kashmiris, questions of justice, identity, and dignity are not theoretical — they shape our daily reality. To be Kashmiri is to understand, from a young age, how fragile rights can be and how urgent the struggle to protect them is.
Kashmir, my homeland, is one of the most contested and conflicted regions in the world. It is divided between Pakistan (35%), India (55%), and China (10%). With over half a million troops stationed there, it is often described as the most militarized zone on earth. Generations of Kashmiris have grown up under curfews, restrictions, and violence — realities that shape every aspect of daily life.
Witnessing the realities of violence
I remember when I was around eight or nine years old, just a child with no understanding of human rights, geopolitics, or conflict. I had gone to visit my ancestral village of Mandhole, located right at the border between Pakistan-administered and Indian-administered Kashmir. Suddenly, heavy firing erupted across the border. Families scrambled for cover, children cried in fear, and the air was filled with the deafening sound of gunfire. That moment, though I could not fully grasp its meaning back then, left a mark on me. It was my first encounter with the reality of being born in a disputed land — a place where ordinary life could be interrupted at any second by conflict.
A young Anas Razzaq, age 10, leading a community donation drive — an early reflection of his enduring dedication to humanitarian work and social impact.
That incident left me shaken, but more importantly, it left me curious. I wanted to understand why such violence existed, what it meant for people like us, and why my homeland was caught in the crossfire of forces far bigger than ordinary lives. Slowly, I began to explore the geopolitical context of Kashmir, the language of rights and freedoms, and what it truly meant to be a Kashmiri.
At an age when most children are shielded from such questions, I was already grappling with them. I recognized early on the importance of human rights — not as abstract ideals, but as the very conditions that could mean dignity, safety, or even survival for people like my family and community. That recognition pushed me to act.
As I grew older, that early awareness evolved into purpose. I began volunteering with local NGOs — some focused on education, others on humanitarian relief. Through these experiences, I learned how small acts of service could bring hope to people living under immense strain. Working with organizations like the Red Crescent and the Red Cross exposed me to the humanitarian dimension of conflict: how aid could save lives, yet how limited it often was in addressing the root causes of suffering.
Confronting root causes
It became increasingly clear to me that true change required more than responding to crises — it demanded confronting the reasons those crises existed in the first place. I wanted to move beyond emergency response and work toward prevention, justice, and awareness.
With that realization, I began mobilizing young people in my own community. What started as a few friends gathering to discuss social issues gradually evolved into a small local initiative dedicated to human rights education, advocacy, and youth empowerment. We began conducting awareness sessions in schools, organizing community dialogues, and holding small public forums to discuss dignity, equality, and justice in the language of ordinary people.
Anas Razzaq conducting an interactive session at a local school in Kashmir, teaching students about human rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
We started with almost nothing — just conviction and a shared belief that change begins with understanding. Over time, the initiative expanded into a network of hundreds of youth volunteers spread across cities and universities throughout Kashmir. Together, we organized awareness drives, advocacy campaigns, capacity-building workshops, and collaborations with national and international partners.
One of our guiding principles was the localization of human rights — making the concept relevant and relatable to the realities faced by Kashmiri communities. Instead of abstract legal language, we spoke of rights through lived experience: the right to education, the right to peace, the right to live without fear.
Building a movement
From those small beginnings, our work started to resonate more widely. As our network grew, so did our impact. The movement we had built from the ground up began to represent the collective voice of a new generation of Kashmiri youth — one that refused to be defined solely by conflict, but by resilience, empathy, and a shared vision for justice.
As our work in Kashmir gained momentum, new doors began to open. What started as local grassroots action soon connected me with wider movements across South Asia and beyond. I began engaging with international youth platforms and networks dedicated to sustainability, climate justice, and human rights advocacy.
Through these global spaces, I came to realize that the challenges faced by young people in Kashmir mirrored those of marginalized communities around the world — whether in conflict zones, climate-vulnerable regions, or places of political repression. The languages differed, but the aspirations were the same: dignity, equality, and the right to live free from fear.
I had the opportunity to participate in international forums, contribute to youth consultations, and share perspectives shaped by life in one of the world’s most complex regions. These experiences deepened my understanding of how interconnected global struggles truly are.
Anas Razzaq signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Allama Iqbal Open University — the world’s fifth-largest institution of higher learning — to promote youth engagement and education in international relations and human rights in Kashmir.
My involvement with youth constituencies linked to the United Nations — including the Major Group for Children and Youth, YOUNGO, and the Global Youth Biodiversity Network — allowed me to channel grassroots experiences into global policy conversations. I contributed to position papers that informed discussions at the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum, the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), and other intergovernmental processes focused on sustainable development and human rights.
Alongside these engagements, I collaborated with UNICEF on child protection initiatives, where I learned how institutional frameworks can support — or fail — vulnerable populations in conflict-affected regions. These experiences taught me that advocacy must exist on multiple fronts: from policy rooms and international assemblies to the villages and classrooms where awareness begins.
Writing also became a central part of how I expressed this journey. My publications — including Pathways to a Sustainable Future and The Heartbeat of Kashmir — became avenues to share how local struggles connect to universal human questions of justice, equality, and survival. Each piece I wrote carried not only my perspective but the collective voice of Kashmiri youth who often go unheard in global dialogues.
Through this intersection of activism, writing, and diplomacy, I found my purpose more clearly defined: to serve as a bridge between the grassroots realities of conflict and the global movements that seek to address them.
Collaborating with the University of Arizona
Most recently, my journey took a transformative turn when I began collaborating with the University of Arizona, working with Professor William Simmons, the head of the Human Rights Practice Program. This partnership opened a new chapter in my life — one that allowed me to connect my lived experiences from Kashmir with academic and global perspectives on human rights practice.
Engaging with scholars, practitioners, and advocates in this environment has given me the space to reflect deeply on my own path — to situate personal experience within broader global frameworks of justice and peace. It has also reminded me that the struggle for human rights does not end with awareness; it continues through research, education, and dialogue that challenge the world to do better.
For me, this collaboration is not just academic. It is personal. It represents the bridging of two worlds — the world of a Kashmiri child who once stood frightened on the border, hearing the sounds of gunfire echo through his village, and the world of a global community that often debates human rights in distant, theoretical terms.
Collaborating with UA, I strive to bring these two worlds together — to remind others that behind every policy, every framework, and every statistic are people whose survival depends on these rights being protected. It is a constant reminder that human rights are not simply about ideals; they are about people, lives, and futures.
This experience has also given me renewed clarity about my mission. While my earlier years in humanitarian and grassroots activism taught me the importance of action, my involvement in global advocacy revealed the power of policy and diplomacy. Now, through academic engagement and cross-border collaboration, I am able to weave these threads together — connecting the local and the global, the personal and the political, the lived and the learned.
I see this not as the conclusion of my journey, but as its continuation — an expansion of it. From Mandhole to Muzaffarabad, from Kashmir to Geneva, and now to Arizona, the path has never been linear. But it has always been guided by the same conviction: that human rights are not privileges reserved for a few, but the foundation of dignity, equality, and survival for all.