Daily Times

Pakistan has called for ‘new thinking’ to shape effective approaches to prevent conflicts, resolving disputes — such as Kashmir & Palestine — and building peace in conflict-hit countries.

“What is required is a comprehensive and integrated strategy which offers regional and international support to national efforts for conflict prevention and dispute resolution”, Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN Security Council which held a high-level debate centred on preventing conflict and building and sustaining peace.

Such a strategy, the Pakistani envoy said, must include: economic and financial support to the States in distress to create employment and generate trust and hope; capacity-building, to enable governments to provide the basic services needed by local populations.

He also called for an end to external exploitation, which fuels violence and terrorism; good faith efforts at resolution of conflicts at the local and regional levels; regional and international support for security and counter-terrorism operations; and a review of ill-considered sanctions that mostly punish the poor.

The meeting – convened by Sierra Leone, the Security Council president for August was held against the backdrop of a rise in conflict globally.

“The root causes of these conflicts range from the legacies of colonialism, internal struggles for scarce food, water and pastures, external competition for precious national resources and interventions designed to suppress the struggle of peoples to reclaim their own political and economic destinies,” Ambassador Akram said. “The consequences of foreign occupation are nowhere as clear as in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine,” the Pakistani envoy said, as he called on the Security Council to end Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

While acknowledging the provision of security and basic needs and services is essential to build social cohesion and success against the forces of violence and terrorism, Ambassador Akram said such national strategies were not sufficient to address the complex crises we face in Africa and elsewhere.

“The proliferation of most of these conflicts has been caused by both endogenous and exogenous factors that must be understood and addressed.”

While the concept of nationally-led violence prevention strategies, as outlined in the Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace, was valuable, Ambassador Akram cited Pakistan’s experience in fighting terrorism, noting that “Pakistan’s updated National Action Plan to combat terrorism, called ‘Azam-e-Istehkam’, relies on working with local communities to exclude and eliminate violence extremism and terrorism.”

“In Pakistan’s experience too, fighting terrorism on our border regions was successful due to the support, assistance and participation of the local communities,” he added.

Opening the debate, a senior UN official said that violence cost the world nearly $20 trillion last year, but investment in peace and conflict prevention has been steadily decreasing.

“Prevention and peace building can break the cycle of violence and lay the foundations to ensure sustainable development is possible for all,” Elizabeth Spehar, Assistant Secretary-General for Peace building Support, said.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leone’s trajectory from brutal civil war 22 years ago to peace today “stands as a beacon of hope and a testament to the power of commitment, dialogue, and inclusive peace building,” said Hawa Samai, Executive Secretary of the country’s Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC).

The Commission was set up in 2020 as part of broader efforts to prevent, manage and mitigate conflicts. It has established peace coalitions, as well as early warning and response mechanisms, across all 16 districts in Sierra Leone.

“By engaging a wide range of local actors, the ICPNC ensures that peace building efforts are grounded in the realities and needs of communities,” she said.