UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 (APP): Pakistan had called for making a distinction between terrorism and the exercise of the legitimate right of people to resist foreign occupation, saying international law upholds this stance.
“This distinction is duly observed in International Law, International Humanitarian Law, and General Assembly resolution 46/51 which also endorses this position,” told the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural matters, on Wednesday.
Participating in a debate on ‘Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’, Ajmal, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, emphasized that the definition of terrorism must be consistent with best practice international standards, including legality.
In this context, the Pakistani delegate voiced concern that in situations of foreign occupation, such as in Indian occupied Kashmir and Palestine, “the occupying powers continue to use so-called administrative and counter-terrorism measures to violate human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous populations, including through forced relocations, demographic changes, arbitrary detentions, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment.”
Pakistan, he said, attached great importance to an international law based global order that ensured the protection of human rights while countering terrorism.
The Pakistani delegate also said that listings of terrorist individuals and entities must not directly or indirectly discriminate on prohibited grounds, including religion. “Yet we see that the UN’s counter terrorism architecture has regrettably singled out one religion for affiliation with terrorism while ignoring neo-fascist, violent nationalist, right wing and Islamophobic groups that target Muslims worldwide,” he said, adding, “This must change.”
Pointing out that the UN Security Council sanctions regimes were not fully compliant with international human rights standards and due process guarantees, Counsellor Ajmal said these should be made more equitable and transparent. “We must also strengthen the (UN) Ombudsperson’s office to the 1267 sanctions committee and expand its mandate.”
In complete breach of international law under false pretexts of counter-terrorism, he said that in May India attacked urban civilian areas in Pakistani territory leading to the loss of 54 innocent Pakistani civilians, including 15 children and 13 women, some of them infants.
“While Pakistan has demonstrated its will and capability to thwart such malicious acts of state terrorism, we must condemn such misadventures,” he added.
“Such countries are also involved in one of the gravest violations of human rights under the pretext of counter-terrorism with their extra-territorial assassination campaigns that contravene provisions of international law, raising serious concerns about such state sponsored terrorism.”