ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, has urged the UN to reevaluate the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine in light of ongoing foreign occupations and human rights violations in Palestine and Indian-administered Kashmir, state-run media reported on Tuesday.
The R2P is an international norm that seeks to ensure that the international community never again fails to halt the mass atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. The concept emerged in response to the failure of the international community to adequately respond to mass atrocities committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. The International Committee on Intervention and State Sovereignty developed the concept of R2P during 2001.
“The ongoing genocide in Gaza and the worst human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir are clear examples of the failure of the R2P concept and the prevention of genocide and war crimes against humanity,” Radio Pakistan quoted Ambassador Akram as saying in an address to the 97th plenary meeting of General Assembly in New York.
“Given the scale of killings, devastation and the humanitarian crisis, there is no more apt situation calling for urgent intervention to stop the genocide than in Gaza, where the international community has failed so far.”
He also called on the UN’s Special Adviser on the R2P to take cognizance of Pakistan’s call and pay special attention to the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir and India.
Nuclear-armed rivals and neighbors India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over control of the disputed Kashmir region in the Himalayas. Both rule parts of Kashmir but claim it in full. Pakistan accuses India of trying to marginalize Muslims in Kashmir with its policies, which New Delhi denies.
India is around 80 percent Hindu and about 14 percent Muslim and is the world’s third-largest Muslim country. Muslims accuse Modi’s right-wing nationalist party of pursuing a Hindu agenda that discriminates against them and directly imposes laws interfering with their faith. Modi denies this but the situation has led to sporadic violence between members of the two communities.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ongoing ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven much of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
Pakistan does not recognize Israel and is a longtime supporter of Palestinian statehood, championing the cause of Palestine on global platforms for decades.
