UNITED NATIONS, Sept 10: Amid unprecedented crisis across global hotspots, India has stressed that outside intervention in national conflicts will aggravate the crisis, underlining that the principle of the nations’ responsibility to protect its citizens should not be misused to bring about regime change.
“The world is witnessing a plethora of unprecedented crisis. In most of these conflicts, outside intervention will aggravate the conflict rather than resolve it. There has to be push for a political engagement and solution. The international community must stress political dialogue and peaceful resolution and not forceful intervention,” First Secretary in the Indian Mission here Abhishek Singh said.
Singh was participating in the informal interactive dialogue of the General Assembly on the responsibility of States to protect their populations by preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity through necessary means.
Sometimes referred to as ‘R2P’, the principle of the responsibility to protect holds States responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met.
With regard to international assistance to help national authorities in fulfilling their responsibility to protect populations, Singh emphasised that assistance should always be requested by the concerned state before it is offered.
“This is cornerstone for us as far as R2P is concerned,” he said, adding the international community must be careful that R2P should not be misused to bring about regime change.
“We have seen this in the not so distant past,” he said underlining that use of force should be considered as a measure of last resort.
“Any action involving R2P must be taken under the auspices of the UN and not outside the UN framework,” he said.
Highlighting the need for urgent reform of the Security Council, Singh pointed out that recent events have shown that the 15-member UN body, which has been mandated to maintain international peace and security, has not been able to fulfill its mandate.
“The need for balanced and impartial discharge of their responsibilities and obligations by Member States under the UN Charter has never been greater. The reform of the UN governance system in tune with the contemporary realities will go a long way in ensuring this changed dynamics which is critical for the successful implementation of R2P,” he said.
Singh urged that the world community should collectively resolve that on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the UN next year, nations must take stock of the R2P concept which was agreed by all in 2005 but the implementation of its various pillars has left much to be desired.
He also stressed on the need for strengthening peacebuilding efforts, saying that peacebuilding strategies must be coherent and tailored to specific needs of the country concerned, based on national ownership. (PTI)
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