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Mr President,
I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to express our appreciation for your able Presidency of the Council during this month.
We have carefully listened to the briefings by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Under-Secretary-General for Department of Peacekeeping Operations, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Director General of International Committee of Red Cross.
Mr President,
The Government of Pakistan strongly condemns attacks on civilians under all circumstances.
Pakistan has been a strong and active supporter of protection of civilians in armed conflict. Over the years, Pakistan has contributed to the international efforts, particularly those led by the United Nations, for protection of civilians in armed conflict. The most tangible demonstration of this, as this Council is well aware, is our participation as top troop contributor in UN peacekeeping missions. We are very keen to make this debate more useful, and to work together in focusing our energies to enhance the implementation capacity to ensure more effective protection of civilians in armed conflict.
Objective reporting is a basic prerequisite for consideration of this important issue.
Mr President,
Systematic and consistent violations of the rights of civilians are most frequent and pervasive around the world especially in situations of foreign occupation. In our view, the report should have reported more objectively on parts of the world where innocent people continue to suffer every day, including in situations that are on the agenda of this Council.
Mr President,
The report contains unwarranted and unacceptable references to Pakistan, for which there is no justification whatsoever. The assertions made in the report are completely misplaced and factually incorrect. Pakistan is a vibrant democracy. By no stretch of imagination can the situation in Pakistan be termed as that of an internal armed conflict.
Pakistan has successfully confronted terrorism, which has roots in the conflict and strife in Afghanistan ensuing from cold war dynamics. It is the lethal nexus of drugs and organized criminal gangs, funded and supplied with weapons that pose threats to Afghanistan’s neighbours and the global community as a whole. The consequence is that innocent civilians across the world, including Pakistan, have been targeted.
Pakistan will continue to do all it can to eliminate terrorism. This we do to protect our people from terrorists and criminal gangs. We seek peace, prosperity and stability to achieve our development goals. We have, in this struggle, the full support of our people.
On a different plane, the report seeks to perhaps build an argument for allowing contact with non-State armed groups. This raises many serious questions including applicability of international humanitarian law to countering terrorism. Certainly no one would wish to advocate contacts with and would commiserate with Al-Qaida and hard core criminal gangs.
Mr President,
We are perplexed when we see that many countries across the world facing situations involving insurgencies and where protection of civilians has been a concern, fail to find even a passing reference in the report.
It is also a matter of grave concern to us that the report even omits any reference to the grave and systematic violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, which are being widely reported by the international media and civil society.
Mr President,
We hope that future reports on this agenda item will be balanced and more carefully drafted. It is important to address these issues objectively and avoid politicising the questions relating to International Humanitarian Law.
I thank you.