Pakistan reminds world of duty to prevent genocide as people under foreign occupation ‘most at risk’

Celina Ali

Islamabad: Asserting that the primary responsibility to defend vulnerable populations rests with the State itself, Pakistan has told the UN General Assembly that the concept of ‘responsibility to protect’, or R2P, which was used to justify some interventions, had failed to prevent genocide where it actually happened– like in the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza.

Speaking in a 193-member Assembly’s debate on the responsibility to protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, Ambassador Munir Akram also warned that 900,000 Indian troops deployed in Indian occupied Kashmir were engaged in brutal atrocities to suppress the Kashmiris quest for freedom and self-determination.

(The controversial concept of R2P rests upon three pillars: the responsibility of each State to protect its populations; the responsibility of the international community to assist States in protecting their populations; and the responsibility of the international community to protect when a State is manifestly failing to protect its populations.)

Pakistan, Ambassador Akram added, urges the UN’s Special Advisor on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ to take cognizance of the grave situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and within India.

Escalating Israeli military attacks in northern Gaza have now forced an estimated 84,000 people to flee the eastern Gaza City in a matter of days, while also cutting off access to a key aid distribution hub, UN humanitarian officials Monday.

The exodus from Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya district follows days of reported intense bombardment by the Israeli military, whose tanks have been sighted “around 100” metres east of Salah El Din road, the main north-south axis.

“People in this area tell us about the looming famine, and how people are eating tree leaves or only have flour to survive on,” said the UN aid agency assisting Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

In a written exchange with UN News, a media website, Senior Communications Officer Louise Wateridge described the destruction in affected areas, which spans some seven square kilometres – as “apocalyptic – most people have lost their homes, either completely or partially, and have to flee with very few belongings; essentially what they can carry in their hands. Many people have lost members of their families”.

“Pregnant women and persons with disabilities are among the most vulnerable as they cannot easily move during forced displacements, as well as huge concern for thousands of unaccompanied and separated children,” Ms. Wateridge added.

The violence has also prevented the agency from accessing its distribution centre in Gaza city’s Tuffah neighbourhood, “due to its proximity to the front line”.

At the same time, the Pakistani envoy said the most visible example of the world community’s failure is the on-going genocide in Gaza where over eight months, Israel’s military onslaught has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children; and injured 86,000.

“Humanitarian supplies have been obstructed; hundreds of humanitarian workers killed. Famine and pestilence stalk Gaza,” Ambassador Akram went on to say. “Indeed, there could be no better illustration of a situation where the international community has the right – indeed the urgent obligation – to intervene to stop this genocide and accompanying war crimes.”

“What is most tragic is that, while used to justify certain interventions, the R2P has failed dramatically to prevent and punish genocide and other crimes when there have actually happened.”

In this regard, Ambassador Akram asked: “Where are the original eloquent proponents of R2P?”

“Some have impeded Security Council from demanding a ceasefire. Some have supplied – and continue to supply – arms and ammunition to Israel – even after the ICJ (International Court of Justice) has asked Israel and its suppliers to stop this ‘plausible genocide’. Even the resolution 2735 – where Israel is supposed to have accepted a ceasefire plan – remains unimplemented. Israeli military operations continue. The killing goes on.”

Is this not a situation where the Security Council, acting under the Genocide Convention, reinforced by the R2P doctrine, should intervene to offer protection to the victims, Ambassador Akram further asked. The OIC, he said, has proposed creation of a Protection Force for the suffering Palestinians and urged the Security Council to urgently consider it.

The Pakistani envoy said it was clear that peoples under foreign occupation were “most at risk.”

Two years ago, he said, Genocide Watch had warned of the danger of genocide in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir where, since 1989, over 100,000 Kashmiris have been killed; 20,000 women raped; thousand made to disappear; 13,000 young boys abducted and many tortured; all leaders seeking freedom incarcerated. Extra-judicial killings, collective punishments, torture and other crimes were a daily reality, with “laws” imposed to indigenous Kashmiris of their properties and to induct Hindu settlers from outside to change demography of Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmir into a Hindu majority territory.

“The R2P movement must act now, if genocide and ethnic cleansing is to be prevented in occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Akram urged the international community.

Also, he said, an equally serious danger has arisen from the officially-sponsored ideology of Hindutva- an ideology that encourages the establishment of a Hindu State — only Bharat.

“Muslims face systematic, officially sanctioned, discrimination, violence and oppression,” the Pakistani envoy said. The law-enforcement and judicial machinery was complicit in this oppression as lynching of Muslims by cow vigilantes and RSS thugs goes unpunished.

“Calls for genocide against Muslims by Hindutva extremists, and even the leaders of the country, evokes no punishment, like the threat last week by a BJP leader to kill 200,000 Muslims,” he said. The head of Genocide Watch has also warned that a genocide against 200 million Muslims of India is “possible”.

Mo Bleeker, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect, introduced the Secretary-General’s report “Responsibility to protect: the commitment to prevent and protect populations from atrocity crime”.

Speaking on behalf of the Secretary-General, she noted that the promise of halting atrocity crimes — adopted at the 2005 World Summit — remains “largely unfulfilled”.

With early warnings often met with indifference or denial, member states often do not take timely decisions to prevent atrocities or are “shocked into inaction”, Ms. Bleeker observed. State and non-State actors violate and abuse with blatant disregard international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Moreover, she said, lack of unanimity by the Council’s permanent members has at times hindered its effectiveness, eroding trust in Governments and international organizations that “fail to deliver” or implement “double standards”.

“Seeking to fill this void, this General Assembly has seen fit to act and make recommendations regarding international peace and security,” Ms. Bleeker noted.

Reflecting on achievements made since 2005, the report highlights progress in understanding the risk factors and dynamics driving atrocity crimes, supported by detailed studies and international tribunal opinions. It emphasizes the need for continuous monitoring and adequate prevention measures, involving Governments, experts, and civil society.

Responding to the question about why atrocity crimes continue to happen, the special adviser underscored that the problem is not due to the lack of political will or disagreements on the responsibility to protect but rather the complexities of agreeing on and implementing preventive measures. The twentieth anniversary of the responsibility to protect in 2025 offers a unique opportunity to take stock, analyse and identify ways for Member States to work together and share best practices of national prevention mechanisms and regional bodies.

“Such a stock-taking exercise and exchange would contribute to recommendations on the responsibility to protect, reflecting the broadest consensus among Member States,” she concluded.