UNITED NATIONS : India has strongly criticised the UN Security Council for its inaction on implementing key resolutions on counter-terrorism and failure to check brazen violations of the sanctions regime, as it sought urgent UNSC reforms to include more nations in the powerful body.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji said at an open debate in the powerful 15-nation Council that it is a matter of concern for nations like itself, “who are not privileged to sit permanently in the Council”.
Mukherji said that Council’s invocation of the Charter’s purposes and principles “appear selective, to suit the national interests of powerful member states.”
He said India endorses tackling global challenges together in a cooperative manner, especially to implement the developmental agenda.
Citing the example of terrorism, he said that the very nature of such challenges, which are increasingly trans-boundary in nature, requires concerted action.
Noting that terrorism directly threatens development, especially in many developing countries, Mukerji expressed concern that action by the Council is “absent” to implement its landmark decisions, including resolutions which impose counter-terrorism obligations on all member states.
“Counter-terrorism sanctions regimes are administered ambivalently and opaquely by the Council,” he said at the session ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Reflect on History, Reaffirm the Strong Commitment to the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations’ here yesterday.
Mukerji said that the listing of the perpetrators of the most heinous of terrorist crimes is also “subject to whims of powerful member states.”
“Even brazen public violations of the sanctions regime by listed individuals and entities, far from attracting punitive measures, do not even elicit the mildest censure of the Council,” he said.
“This inaction is a serious deviation from the responsibilities given to the Council by the Charter, with dangerous consequences,” he said.
Mukerji stressed that the Council’s decisions on issues not directly linked with maintaining international peace and security cannot encroach upon the jurisdiction of the General Assembly, where 193 nations are equally represented.
He said it is “ironical” that calls for democracy and the
rule of law are being made in a Council that itself “embodies the undemocratic stranglehold of the privileges of a few, forged by a wartime alliance that no longer exists.”
“The logic of democracy and the anguished faces of human suffering across the world, call for urgent action to reform the Council. We must do so this year if we are to learn the right lessons from history,” he said.
In the area of peacekeeping, Mukerji said India deeply regrets that the Council has so far repeatedly “violated, and in fact diluted,” the clear provisions of the Charter, which requires the Council to invite member states contributing troops, who are not among its 15 members, to participate in the decisions of the Council.
He said the failure of the Council to consult non-members who contribute troops has “seriously compromised the objectives of peacekeeping.”
India is the single largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping operations and has actively participated in 11 out of the 15 active peacekeeping operations.
India also endorsed the call to give priority to the peaceful settlement of disputes.
Mukerji said the festering situations in Africa, West Asia and Europe are “vivid illustrations” of the Council’s inability or disinclination to use relevant provisions of the UN Charter.
“We are convinced that only through an inclusive political dialogue process can any lasting peace and security can be sustained,” he said, adding the Council must invest more time, energy and resources on implementing Chapter VI of the Charter.
The UNSC meeting was presided over by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi under China’s presidency of the 15-nation body for February.
Yi said the 70th anniversary of the United Nations this year was an important opportunity to draw lessons from history and chart a course for the future, which means reaffirming commitment to the UN Charter and renewing good neighbourliness.
He also paid tribute to all those who sacrificed to fight fascism, noting that China was an important force in that context. (AGENCIES)
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