Statement by Pakistan on the elections to the Non-Permanent Seat on the UNSC

UNSC Non-Permanent Seat

Waqar Naseem Wamiq, Riyadh – At the outset on the elections to the Non-Permanent seat of the United Nations Security Council. Pakistan warmly congratulates Ambassador Volkan Bozkir of Turkey on his election as the President of the 75th Session of UNSC.

The General Assembly has elected four non-permanent members to the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term commencing from 1 January 2021.

Pakistan Statement

Pakistan congratulated Ireland, Norway, and Mexico on their election to the Council. The election of India, however, raises fundamental questions.

The UN Charter has entrusted the Security Council with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Charter stipulates that in discharging this responsibility, on behalf of the member states, the Council shall act in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations. This is the touchstone for the Council’s credibility and legitimacy.

Indian Occupied Kashmir

India stands in flagrant violation of several resolutions of the Security Council that prescribed a UN-supervised plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination.

India’s gross and systematic violations of human rights in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) have been extensively documented by international human rights and humanitarian organizations as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its successive reports. India has incarcerated 8 million Kashmiris, including top Kashmiri leadership, with 900,000 occupation troops.

The people of IOJ&K have been suffering under inhuman lockdown and military siege for over 10 months, following India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019. The entire region has been turned into a large prison, with unprecedented restrictions which continue despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. India has persistently defied requests to allow international monitors in IOJ&K.

Indian actions aimed at illegally altering the demographic structure of IOJ&K are violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and international law, in particular the 4th Geneva Convention. While the world is grappling with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, India is busy, unabashedly, advancing RSS-BJP inspired extremist ‘Hindutva’ ideology.

RSS-BJP

Over and above, the current Indian leadership has perpetuated massive violations of human rights against its minorities, in particular Muslims, threatening them with statelessness. Rising Islamophobia in India is evident from the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The imposition of the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA); initiation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process; and the targeted killings of Muslims in repeated pogroms in Mumbai (1993), Gujarat (2002) and New Delhi (2020) are various facets of this phenomenon.

The Indian State’s proclivity to violence is no secret, which is a direct consequence of its headlong militarization and unbridled hegemonic ambitions. It has routinely used aggression in seeking to coerce its neighbors. It has employed terrorism, at one time or another, as state policy to destabilize every neighboring state. And, it has border disputes with all of its neighbors.

India’s so-called “5-S approach” in the UNSC is only a smoke-screen to mask the arrogant, belligerent, and confrontationist side of India. Perhaps India would do well to consider another “S” i.e. Satya or truth: The truth of Indian oppression, aggression, and occupation, which cannot be covered up by false espousals.

Indian actions in IOJ&K and beyond are the fundamental negation of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. India is a consistent violator of the UNSC resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir dispute. Rather than felicitated, a country with such credentials must be held accountable. India must be asked to abide by the resolutions of the Security Council.

Pakistan will be working with rest of the members of the Security Council in advancing the objectives of international peace and security in South Asia and beyond.

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