UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan told the UN Security Council Thursday that “selectivity and double standards” in implementing the 15-member body’s resolutions on long-standing disputes, like Jammu and Kashmir, have led to violations of international law that adversely impact on world peace and security.
“This issue has proved to be the system’s ‘Achilles’ Heel’,” acting Pakistan Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aamir Khan, said during a high-level debate on strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of international law.
“Selectivity and double standards in the implementation of Security Council resolutions and decisions, especially on long-standing disputes remain a principal cause of concern,” he added.
In addition, the Pakistani envoy said, the concepts, such as the “Responsibility to Protect (R2P)”, continue to remain divisive, particularly because its application remains driven solely by political considerations.
(R2P rests upon three pillars: the responsibility of each State to protect its populations; the responsibility of the international community to assist States in protecting their populations; and the responsibility of the international community to protect when a state is manifestly failing to protect its populations.)
“As a result,” the Pakistani envoy said, “serious violations in situations of illegal occupation with clear UN Security Council mandates can easily spiral to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in the absence of international scrutiny and accountability.”
Jammu and Kashmir, Ambassador Aamir Khan said, was one glaring example of such brutal occupation where international law has been flouted for decades.
Over the span of the last 75 years, he said, India has not only forcibly denied the right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people but also committed gross and systematic violations of international law.
“More than 900,000 Indian troops that remain deployed in the valley for decades have resorted to worst forms of torture, rapes, renditions, forced displacement, and other grave breaches of international criminal law, including by using live ammunition against civilian protestors in the form of ‘pellet guns’ blinding innocent youth and leaving many others injured,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“They have ransacked and pillaged towns, villages, and neighborhood to impose what India’s own leaders have themselves called a ‘final solution’ for Jammu and Kashmir.”
Since August 5, 2019, he said, India has embarked on a sinister plan to transform occupied territory from a Muslim majority state to a Hindu majority territory, violating the 4th Geneva Convention and international law.
“Appeasement by the international community would only encourage further impunity,” Ambassador Aamir Khan said.
The Pakistani envoy called on the Security Council to immediately take cognizance of the compelling evidence of these international crimes and to hold Indian officials and personnel accountable for such activities and grave breaches of international humanitarian law.
Noting that primary responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security, rests with the Security Council, he said that over the years in discharging its functions, it has contributed to the fight against impunity for serious violations and crimes, in specific, practical and diverse ways, but the seminal moment in the history of accountability of serious violations arrived when the Council applying broad sweep of its powers under Chapter VII (enforcement) of the Charter chose to establish ad-hoc tribunals with the mandate to advance accountability for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Despite this often-declared strong stance and commitment of the Security Council, in many parts of the world, violations of international law persist and continue to have an adverse impact on international peace and security,” Ambassador Aamir Khan said.
Universal and consistent adherence to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, he said, was imperative, not only to ensure the credibility and legitimacy of the UN system but also to strengthen accountability and justice for serious violations of international law.
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