Pakistan urges UN to end ‘selective’ application of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine

• Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad says inconsistent implementation undermined credibility of R2P principle

• Warns global commitment to prevent genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing failed in prolonged conflicts and foreign occupation

• Declares ‘Never Again’ remains an unfulfilled promise amid inaction, denial, selectivity and paralysis

• Calls on UN member states to invest more in prevention instead of responding only after mass atrocities occur

 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called on the United Nations to apply its “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine consistently and without “selectivity,” warning that the international community's collective commitment to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity has fallen short in situations of prolonged conflict and foreign occupation.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly's annual debate on the doctrine, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said the credibility and effectiveness of the R2P principle were being undermined by inconsistent implementation and the failure to act in the face of mass atrocities.

“With an unprecedentedly high number of conflicts all over the world, the edifice of R2P stands on tenuous grounds,” he said.

“Our shared objective to protect fundamental human rights, and to prevent the recurrence of mass atrocities is often obfuscated by inaction, denial, selectivity and paralysis.”

Highlighting what he described as the doctrine's shortcomings in conflict situations, the ambassador said: “Nowhere is this void more evident than in situations of prolonged conflict and foreign occupation, where atrocities have been committed with impunity, in full glare of international attention.”

“No responsibility, no protection, no accountability. The promise of ‘Never Again’ unfulfilled,” he added.

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine emerged from international efforts to prevent a recurrence of atrocities such as the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, following the international community's failure to stop the mass killings.

First articulated in a 2001 report by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, the doctrine was endorsed by world leaders at the 2005 UN World Summit. It affirms that every state bears the primary responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, while the international community has a collective responsibility to act through the United Nations when a state is manifestly failing to do so.

Pakistan has consistently criticized Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and the presence of Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, arguing that the international community has failed to implement relevant UN resolutions in both disputes. Israel has also been facing international accusations of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Although Ambassador Ahmad did not mention any specific territory or conflict by name during his address, he called for renewed international commitment to the R2P doctrine and urged UN member states to invest more in preventive diplomacy rather than responding only after atrocities have occurred.

He also stressed the need for the peaceful resolution of long-standing conflicts in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions and international law.

Calling for stronger international action against the root causes of violence, the Pakistani envoy urged the global community to confront “hate speech, xenophobia, Islamophobia and other grotesque ideologies” that fuel discrimination, intolerance and mass atrocities.

“This remains the most realistic pathway to honor those who have fallen victim to atrocity crimes, to protect our future generations, and to restore our faith in multilateral action, justice and accountability,” Ambassador Ahmad added.