Pakistan reaffirms commitment to UN Peacekeeping Operations
NEW YORK (92 News) – Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in conflict zones around the world.
Speaking in the UN Security Council’s open debate on training and capacity building for United Nations peacekeeping missions, Pakistani Ambassador to UN Maleeha Lodhi underscored the need for the UN to undertake political processes along with its peacekeeping efforts to attain durable peace and stability.
She said Pakistan is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping, with over five thousand troops serving in missions in hotspots around the world.
Pakistan, she said, is also host to one of the earliest peacekeeping missions, namely the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region.
Denial of self-determination to Kashmiris violation of UN Charter
Pakistan has told the UN General Assembly that the continued denial of the right to self-determination to the people of Indian-held Jammu Kashmir (IHK) was not only a travesty of justice, but also an “egregious violation” of the UN Charter.
Addressing a special meeting of the 193-member Assembly to commemorate the “International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace”, Pakistan’s Ambassador to UN Maleeha Lodhi urged the international community to stand united against any attempts to undermine the sanctity of the UN Charter or to reinterpret its fundamental provisions to suit narrow aims.
“If the primacy of ‘we the peoples’ is to be more than just words,” Ambassador Lodhi underscored, the fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter must be ensured to all peoples.
She also pointed to a growing tendency in the world by some to erode well-established norms of international law, including respect for sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states, and the prohibition of the use of force.