NEW YORK: Pakistan called for reinforcing the concept of protection of civilians and accountability in all situations of armed conflict, including in Palestine and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, asserting there should be no impunity for violators of international law.
“The goal of protection of civilians is best served by preventing the outbreak of an armed conflict in the first place,” Pakistan Ambassador at UN Munir Akram said in a statement submitted to the Security Council which held an open debate on Tuesday on keeping civilians free from harm in an armed conflict situation.
In this regard, the ambassador urged the 15-member body to address the root causes of emerging and long-standing conflicts, including Palestine and Kashmir, and promote just and peaceful solutions.
He said Indian moves since August 5, 2019, to impose what its leaders call a “final solution” for occupied Kashmir constitute grave violations of Security Council resolutions and international law.
These actions, he said, include: “Cordon and search operations and fake encounters to the extra-judicial killing of young men, indiscriminate use of live ammunition against peaceful protestors, including pellet guns, collective punishments to destroy entire neighborhoods, arbitrary detention of Kashmiri political leaders, and thousands of young boys on trumped-up charges, targeting of civilians in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, and forced seizure of private land and attempts to change the demography and convert its Muslim-majority state to a minority.”
“Those responsible for such grave and consistent breaches of human rights and international humanitarian laws in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir must be held accountable,” Ambassador Akram said.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “neither the resolutions of the Security Council nor the UN Counter-Terrorism Strategy, provide credible means of offering either protection or justice to civilian victims of terrorism or state terrorism.”
Pakistan has been a principal victim of externally sponsored terrorism, having lost nearly 80,000 civilians and troops in the fight against the menace of terrorism. Pakistan, he added, conducted well-planned campaigns to root out terrorists operating from its soil, but still continue to face cross-border terrorism sponsored by adversaries.
“The Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism do not authorise the use of force on the territory of other states without the express authorization of the Security Council,” he said.
“Nor do they justify compromising the requirement for proportionality in the use of force.”
Akram also called for accountability for civilian casualties caused as “collateral damage” by indiscriminate use of force.
“As an occupying power, Israel has no right of self-defence under international law,” he said, adding that its use of force against the occupied and besieged Palestinians was illegal. “On the contrary,” he added. “It is the Palestinian people who have the right to struggle ‘by all possible means to secure freedom from foreign occupation.”
False equivalence between the occupier and the occupied is morally and legally untenable, he observed, noting that it had given Israel the sense of impunity to use indiscriminate and disproportionate force, including the aerial bombing of Gaza, resulting in the death of over 200 people, including children.
“Such attacks amount to collective punishment of civilians and constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions.”
“There should be no impunity for such violations,” Ambassador Akram said.
