Daily Times

Pakistan has called on the United Nations General Assembly to push the Security Council to reconsider and recommend Palestine’s application for full membership of the UN to rectify the historic injustice against the Palestinian people.

“The admission of the State of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations would constitute a concrete political step towards the two-state solution and towards rectifying the historic injustice against the Palestinian people,” Ambassador Munir Akram said in a meeting sparked by a United States’ veto, which blocked an Algerian resolution on 18 April that would have granted Palestine U.N.’s membership.

The meeting was necessitated by “the veto initiative” — the informal name for a resolution adopted by the Assembly in April 2022, titled “Standing mandate for a General Assembly debate when a veto is cast in the Security Council.” According to the measure, which was put forth following the repeated wielding of the veto at the Council, blocking action on other situations, the General Assembly has a standing mandate to convene within 10 working days of a veto being cast in the Council.

Palestine is a ‘Permanent Observer State” at the UN, meaning that it can participate in all UN proceedings, except for voting on draft resolutions and decisions in its main organs and bodies. In his remarks, the Pakistani envoy said, “The veto cast against Palestine’s admission erodes the credibility of the assurances that have been held out of support for the two-state solution.

“The diplomacy now underway for peace in Palestine, in Israel and the region would gain considerable momentum if the veto was lifted and Palestine’s admission to the United Nations recommended by the Security Council.”

Ambassador Akram appealed to the United Nations and the international community at large to enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; guarantee unrestricted access to humanitarian aid; prevent further escalation of the conflict; provide international protection for the Palestinians; revive the peace process and hold Israel responsible for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Now,” he said, “the extremist Israeli leadership is threatening an assault on Rafah which, as the UN Secretary-General has stated, ‘would be an unbearable escalation’, would have a devastating impact on the Palestinians in Gaza, with serious repressions on the occupied West .”

Ambassador Akram highlighted the plight of the Palestinian people over the past seven decades, including the denial of self-determination, expulsion from their homeland, and enduring a prolonged and brutal foreign occupation.

The Pakistani envoy condemned Israel for its recent war crimes in Gaza, which had resulted in the deaths of over 35,000 Palestinian civilians, indiscriminate bombing, and the blockade of humanitarian aid, which the International Court of Justice has deemed as “plausible genocide.”

Ambassador Akram also hit back at the Israeli representative for making wild accusations against Islamic countries.

“Let me tell the Israeli representative that the outlawed Israeli regime cannot divert attention from its crimes by leveling calumny against the Islamic countries, ” he said, adding, “Pakistan, unlike Israel, acts in accordance with international law.”

Financial System

Pakistan Wednesday called for sweeping reform of the international financial system to allow for low-income countries vulnerable to climate impacts to receive adequate help from richer nations.

“The highest priority for us must be to promote more rapid and equitable development, by seeking urgent support for the developing countries and the reform of the partial and unequal international financial, trade and technology regime to respond to the needs of developing countries,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the Ninth Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development.

The Expert Mechanism provides the Geneva-based Human Rights Council with thematic expertise on the right to development in searching for, identifying and sharing best practices with Member States and promotes the implementation of the right to development worldwide.

“We believe that while states have the primary responsibility to promote human rights, the UN system and International Financial Institutions have a collective responsibility to align the international economic and development policies in ways that helps in the realization of the right to development,” the Pakistani envoy said.

In this context, he underscored the importance of balanced promotion of all human rights, while stressing the need for a conducive environment to realize the fundamental right to development.

Ambassador Akram said that developing countries were unable to make requisite resources for health and education available because of high indebtedness. Concentration of unsustainable debts in developing countries represented a systematic failure that needed to be addressed.

He underscored the importance of promoting all human rights comprehensively and in a balanced manner, noting the organic linkages between the right to development and other human rights. Without a conducive environment created by the fundamental right to development, it was not possible to promote other rights effectively.

“We cannot put more obligations of human rights on States without giving them the necessary resources to create necessary conditions for meeting those obligations.”

While referring to the pressing global challenges, the Pakistani envoy focused on the adverse impact of the unequal global economic system, conflicts, and climate change, which have reversed development gains, plunging millions back into extreme poverty and hindering progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Over a hundred million people have descended back into the ranks of the extreme poverty, who now number over 850 million people, with 350 million facing hunger and destitution. Sixty states are in debt crisis and only 12 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals are on track to be achieved by 2030.”