UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for addressing situations of decades-old unresolved conflicts and foreign occupation — an obvious reference to IIOJK and Palestine — as part of efforts to combat violent extremism.
Pakistani delegate Muhammad Jawad Ajmal, speaking at an event marking International Day for the Prevention of Violent Extremism, also demanded reaffirmation by the international community of its commitment to promoting tolerance, peace, inter-religious dialogue, and countering hate speech.
Political and economic injustices have fueled animosities and created polarization, he told delegates at the event, which was arranged by the Iraqi Mission to the UN on Tuesday.
Reiterating Pakistan’s condemnation of terrorism in all its manifestations and forms, the Pakistani delegate said that the international landscape of the menace has evolved significantly in recent years.
He said that today, the world has failed to address the root causes of terrorism, including denial of the inalienable right to self-determination, injustice, foreign occupation, oppression, and state terrorism.
The world has also failed to address violent acts by far-right extreme right-wing, white supremacist, violent nationalist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, anti-Muslim, and Hindutva groups and ideologies in different parts of the world, he added.
To combat violent extremism, the world needed to comprehensively address not just the symptoms but the root causes as well.
Pakistani Delegate Highlights Five Points
In this context, he underlined five points:
— The practice of insulting any religion and acts of violence and hate on the basis of religion or belief must be universally outlawed;
— The UN must make appropriate changes in its counter-terrorism architecture and sanctions regimes to cover emerging and new forms of terrorism like right-wing and Islamophobic extremism and terrorism;
— Ensure that the fight against counter-terrorism is not misused to violate human rights.
— Take steps to stop the desecration of the Holy Quran, publication of blasphemous content, demolition of mosques, and allowing ethnic cleansing and mass murder of people of one particular faith.
— The UN General Assembly set up a body to promote the universal consideration and balanced implementation of all four pillars of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
