-Says UNSC must enable Kashmiris, Palestinians to exercise right of self-determination
DM Monitoring
NEW YORK: Pakistan told the UN Security Council Thursday that enabling the people of Palestine and Kashmir to exercise their right of self-determination must be the 15-member body’s “priority objective.”
“People are at the core of the world order envisaged in the UN Charter,” Ambassador Munir Akram reminded delegates, as he spoke in a debate on ‘investing in people to enhance resilience against complex challenges’ in the context of building and sustaining peace.
Obviously, the Pakistani envoy said, over the last seven decades, insufficient attention has been accorded to “the ‘peoples’ of our United Nations”.
“Although most of the peoples of the 193 Member States of the UN have exercised their right to self-determination, there are several who have been prevented from exercising this right due to foreign occupation and suppression,” he said, adding, “Two of the most intractable conflicts in the Council’s agenda — Palestine and Jammu & Kashmir — continue to fester, and threaten international peace and security, due to suppression of the right of self-determination through foreign occupation.”
“Enabling the people of Palestine and Jammu & Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination must be a priority objective of the Security Council,” Ambassador Akram stressed.
Recognizing the failure of ensuring the universal respect for human rights due to double standards and political priorities of some of those who “champion” human rights, he pointed out that the United Nations did not succeed in promoting higher living conditions either.
“Our world is vastly richer than it was 70 years ago, yet inequality has increased and the division between the rich and the poor is growing,” he said, underscoring that resilient development is needed to build resilient peace, and achieving the climate agenda and climate justice is required to reach a durable peace.
Ambassador Akram said that, in response to the recent floods, Pakistan, in cooperation with its partners, has formulated the resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework.
“This demonstration of international solidarity and cooperation will, we hope, imbue all of the efforts by the international community to ensure that all peoples are equipped to address the complex challenges of peace, development, and climate change we face today.”
Besides, With the international and regional security environment worsening, Pakistan has expressed concern over the “generous” supply of conventional and non-conventional weapons to India, saying it was eroding the strategic stability in South Asia.
“The regional security environment continues to deteriorate primarily because of the hegemonic policies of the largest State,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi told a UN panel, without naming India.
The Pakistani envoy was addressing the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, a 65-member forum established by the international community to negotiate arm control and disarmament agreements, which began its session on Tuesday.
Ambassador Hashmi said that those hegemonic policies drew strength from the “generous” supplies of conventional and non-conventional weaponry, technology and platforms from multiple sources.
“They are also inspired by the nuclear exceptionalism afforded to this State (India) in contravention of long-standing non-proliferation principles, norms and rules,” the Pakistani envoy said in an apparent reference to the 2008 India-US civilian nuclear agreement.
“The net effects of these developments in South Asia are clear: strategic stability in the region is eroding,” he said, adding, “The largest State continues to relentlessly pursue strategic domination and operationalize dangerous doctrines.
“Even more worryingly, these developments are accelerating the pace of defiance by this State of international law, particularly the UN Security Council resolutions.”
Pakistan, he said, cannot remain oblivious to the evolving security dynamics in the immediate neighbourhood and the clear and present dangers to its security due to these policies, actions and developments.
“Pakistan will do whatever it takes to defend itself from all forms of aggression while remaining resolute in pursuing peace, development and strategic stability in South Asia, based on the universal principles of sovereign equality and equal security,” Ambassador Hashmi said.
