Bilawal urges conflict prevention in UNSC speech

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday to implement its resolutions on the Kashmir issue and deliver on its commitment to peace in the region and “prove that multilateralism can succeed”.

Speaking on ‘International peace and security – Reformed Multilateralism’ in the UNSC, the foreign minister reminded the 15-member council of an agenda item that had been left unaddressed – the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

“We believe it a multinational agenda, an agenda of this UNSC and if you want to see the success of the multilateral institution or multilateralism and the success of this very council, surely you can aid in this process; allow the implementation of the resolutions of the UNSC, when it comes to the question of Kashmir, prove the multilateralism can succeed, prove that the UNSC can succeed and deliver peace in the region,” he said.

He said that Pakistan believed that further democratisation of the UN, the UNSC and the General Assembly would empower this institution and provide it a moral authority to act. “It would serve the institution to further democratise and to allow the sovereign equality of all and not the superiority of some,” he added.

“It does not serve the purposes of the UN to add more members to its elitist club and to expand the tyrannical power of veto,” Foreign Minister Bilawal said. The Security Council should, the foreign minister added, reflect the “contemporary global realities”.

Bilawal pointed out that the Security Council had the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. He agreed that multilateral solutions, under the umbrella of the UNSC, offered the most effective approach to promoting peace and resolving conflicts.

“Parties to a dispute cannot advocate multilateral processes one day and insist on ‘bilateral’ avenues the day after. Pakistan firmly believes that the major security problems, including those in our region, can be effectively and peacefully resolved through the active involvement of the Security Council and the secretary-general.”

The foreign minister emphasised that “multilateralism” must be based on universal and consistent adherence to the fundamental principles of the UN Charter – self-determination of peoples, no use or threat of force, non-acquisition of territory by the use of force, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states and non-interference in their internal affairs.

“Strict adherence to the Charter’s principles has become all the more essential in the context of recent and on-going conflicts,” the foreign minister told the gathering, urging the UNSC to must seek to resolve conflicts and disputes, instead of merely ‘managing’ them.

The UNSC, Bilawal continued, should address the underlying causes of conflict, such as foreign occupation and suppression of the recognised right of the peoples to self-determination. “And, in accordance with their obligation under Article 25 of the Charter, member states must implement the decisions of the Council.”

The Security Council, the foreign minister said, “must act, not only after a conflict has erupted but pre-emptively” to prevent the conflicts before they occurred. He mentioned that most of the UN’s 193 members were small and medium sized states but they needed to be equitably through the UNSC expansion.

Adding new “permanent members” would numerically reduce the opportunities for the vast majority of the UN member states to be represented on the Security Council, he said, adding: “We must adhere to the principle of sovereign equality of all and not the superiority of some.”

He also warned that adding new permanent members would multiply the possibility of “paralysis in the Security Council” as seen in the past when the forum had been unable to act due to differences among its permanent members.
“The problem cannot be the solution. And, surely, states which have record of not implementing the resolutions of the Security Council cannot be considered as worthy of consideration for any forms of Council membership,” he added.

Bilawal further said that in this complex world, confronted by multiple threats and challenges, inclusive multilateral processes within the UN framework, offered the most promising prospect for peace and security, economic and social development and effective responses to the several interlocking challenges.

It was therefore vital to empower and efficiently utilise all the main organs of the UN: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Council, the International Court of Justice, the secretary-general and the secretariat, he stated.

“We must also induct equality and democracy in the structures of global financial and economic governance, especially the Bretton Woods institutions. The General Assembly – the most universal global forum – must play the central role in reinforcing multilateralism and enhancing equity and justice in international relations.”

Bilawal urged the world to turn away attention from pursuing narrow national ambitions and face collectively, multilaterally, first and foremost the existential threats faced by human race in the shape of Covid pandemic, climate change, the nuclear threat and terrorism.

“The increasing propensity for narrow-minded populism, authoritarianism, we must confront the rise of hate ideologies, xenophobia, populist extremism and racial and religious intolerance, including Islamophobia, which imposes discrimination and violence, and even threats of genocide, against vulnerable minorities in certain countries,” he observed.

The foreign minister reminded that their endeavours to promote world order, peace and stability would come to naught unless they could realise the Charter’s second objective: universal socio-economic development. As a result of the Covid pandemic, raging conflicts and the more frequent and ferocious impacts of climate change, nearly a hundred developing countries were in extreme economic distress, he said.

The foreign minister said that in capacity as G77 Chair Pakistan would continue to pursue an extensive agenda of multilateralism. He reminded the world that in COP27, “We saw a victory for the climate justice with the addition of loss and damage funding facility.”