Pakistan stresses UN role for political conflicts

ISLAMABAD, 16 Feb 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: Pakistan's ambassador to the UN has said that the UN peacekeeping has emerged as a vital instrument to give life to the Charter’s vision of collective security and to build a bridge from conflict to durable political solutions.

However, the international community is confronting security challenges in several regions, especially in parts of Africa, which are “very different from those we addressed in the earlier days of peacekeeping,” said Munir Akram during a General Debate and Opening Plenary Meeting in New York on Monday.

“The new threats we confront have political causes and ultimately, political solutions. Obviously, the UN peacekeeping is not equipped to assume the responsibility to resolve such conflicts, insurgencies, and cross-border attacks,” he said, urging the UN Security Council to utilize the several mechanisms available to it under the UN Charter to promote such solutions.

“UN peacekeeping has so far not been used to impose peace, but rather to help preserve peace and foster conditions for the political resolution of the underlying conflicts and disputes,” he said.

Akram said that the international community, including the UN Security Council, “has been unable to find political solutions to several long-standing disputes – such as the one over Jammu and Kashmir, where one of the oldest UN Missions is stationed – and to conflicts – such as inter-State and intra-State eruptions – that have proliferated and escalated in recent years, causing massive suffering and human rights violations, and posing threats to international peace and security.”

The Pakistani ambassador said politics “governs everything.”

“UN peacekeeping is a success story. Pakistan takes pride in its contributions – having deployed 200,000 peacekeepers in 46 UN Missions,” he said.

“Along with the changed nature of threats, we also have new capabilities – which can enable the United Nations to enhance the performance of its peacekeepers,” he said, adding that Pakistan commends the UN for maintaining the continuity of UN peacekeeping and preserving the safety of UN peacekeepers during the devastating COVID-19 crisis.

UN forces personnel under United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) are deployed in divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir since the early 1950s.

“We in this Committee in the Security Council and in the General Assembly must formulate mandates together which are realistic. This Committee could establish working groups composed on the members of the Security Council to discuss the mandate for specific Peacekeeping Missions before these are adopted by the Security Council,” he suggested.