Daily Times

Pakistan, which along with many Arab and OIC countries co-sponsored the Russian draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, expressed disappointment that the UN Security Council did not approve the balanced text.

“The most urgent need at this stage is a ceasefire,” Ambassador Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, told APP correspondent.

“It is, therefore, disappointing that the Russian draft resolution, which called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, was not adopted,” he added.

The draft did not secure the required number of nine votes for adoption. The final vote tally was 5 in favour (China, Gabon, Mozambique, the Russian Federation and the United Arab Emirates), 4 against (France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), and 6 abstentions (Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Malta and Switzerland).

The Arab and OIC countries, which co-sponsored the Russian draft resolution, were: Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, Yemen, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkiye, Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritania, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea and Mali. Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were also among the co-sponsors. Diplomats noted that the State of Palestine also supported the Russian draft.

After Monday night’s vote, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia expressed regret over the Security Council’s failure to adopt the resolution, blaming the “selfish intention of the Western bloc”. He said that the Western countries’ delegations “basically stomped” on global hopes for the Council to put an end to violence.

Western countries opposed the resolution on the ground that it not mention Hamas. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that her country could not support the Russian draft resolution as it ignored Hamas’ terrorism and ‘dishonoured’ victims.

Meanwhile, Pakistan told a U.N. panel that human rights are being trampled with impunity in many places, with the “most egregious” abuses taking place in the occupied territories of Palestine and Kashmir.

“These violations of human rights are turbo-charged by the rise of racism, fascism, hate speech and ethnic and religious discrimination and rising Islamophobia,” Ambassador Munir Akram said in his address to the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural matters, on Tuesday.

“It is sad that those who are so eager to criticize human rights violations elsewhere fall silent when it comes to India”, he said, underscoring that it was time for the UN to speak out and press India to halt the human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and against its minorities.

Turning to the alarming situation in Gaza, the Pakistani envoy called for an unconditional ceasefire and immediate assistance to the people of Palestine.

Participating in a debate on ‘Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’, Ambassador Akram said that Islamophobia was practiced in its “most pernicious form” by the Hindutva zealots ruling India.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ideology replicates the last century’s fascism in Europe, he said, spotlighting massive violations of human rights in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and against India’s 200 million Muslims, as well as Christians, Sikhs and the so-called lower castes – the Dalits.

“Between 2014 – when (Prime Minister) Mr. (Narendra) Modi assumed power – and 2018, there was a 786% increase in hate speech against minorities, especially Muslims (as noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues),” The Pakistani envoy said.

Anti-Muslim pogroms, he said, had taken place in Gujarat in 2002, when over 2000 Muslim men, women and children were massacred when Modi was the chief minister of the state, adding that Christians have also been targeted, as witnessed in the organized rape of their women, by Hindutva fueled militants in Manipur State.

New Citizenship Laws aim to exclude and reduce India’s 200 million Muslims to second-class status, Ambassador Akram said, “Muslims are lynched almost daily by Hindu “cow vigilantes”, he said, adding their homes are bulldozed as collective punishment. Hindu priests have called for genocide against India’s Muslims.

The Hindutva regime, he said, was obliterating India’s Islamic legacy– the Babri Mosque, destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992, has been replaced by a Hindu temple, with several hundred mosques across India now facing similar destruction. Hindutva ideologues were re-writing history, eliminating and changing place names of major Muslim monuments, it was pointed out.

“The world should be greatly disturbed by what is happening in India; Hindu fascism could lead to widespread ethnic/religious cleansing,” Ambassador Akram warned, adding that the BJP-RSS government also poses a threat to regional and international peace and security.

“Prior to each election in India, the BJP-RSS have resorted to some violent adventure — the aerial attack against Pakistan in 2019 was one such adventure,” he added “The sense of impunity experienced by this extremist regime has further fueled its aggressive and belligerent posture,” the Pakistani envoy said.