By Namer Afzal Khan

India stood isolated at UN Security Council during its presidency. New Delhi did not vote in favor of a resolution starting a ‘humanitarian carve out’ to the asset freeze measures imposed by the UN sanctions regime. On 9, December 2022, the Security Council adopted resolution 2664 with 14 members of the Security Council voting in favor and one abstaining India. The resolution seeks to exempt humanitarian aid from the UN sanctions that would facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations towards the delivery of basic human needs.

On Friday the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution to allow humanitarian aid to endure unimpeded into countries besieged by UN sanctions, mainly frozen assets. The text stated that "payments of moneys," "financial resources" or "the provision of goods and services essential to safeguard the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance are permitted and are not a defilement of the asset freezes imposed by this Council.

The resolution applied to UN agencies as well as humanitarian organizations contributing in UN charitable work. The humanitarian community has been calling for the Council to guarantee that "unintentional, second-order impacts don't impede their work," said US ambassador to the UN. She said they wanted was a "clear, standard carve-out" for all UN sanctions regimes. she said, adding that the resolution would "protect lives”. The text which was also supported by several dozen states even outside the Security Council got 14 votes in favor in the Council, with only India abstaining.

The United States and Ireland as co-pen holders of the resolution dispersed the draft resolution earlier in the council under silence procedure that was broken by China and Russia and numerous rounds of talks took place during which India continued to make attempts to manipulate the deliberations. Failing to achieve its purposes, India abstained by being the only country to do so on this resolution in what was yet another attempt to politicize the proceedings of the Council.

India has continued to misuse the platform of the UN Security Council for internal politics agendas during its two-year membership. It has made recurrent efforts to use counter-terrorism issues for propaganda purposes with a singular mania of keeping a narrative against Pakistan that has zero hearers in the UN Security Council. India’s concern was not to permit a window of humanitarian help to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) where it is trying to massive repression under the appearance of combatting terrorism. Indian fascist regime of RSS and terrorist Indian Army have unleashed unprecedented wave of oppression and violence against innocent people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Almost all human right organizations have continuously raised their voice against human right abuses in IIOJK. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Genocide Watch and US Commission on International Religious Freedom call for addressing the ongoing human rights violations and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir. These reports demand a commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir.

IIOJK has become the largest prison of the world; peace can be established in South Asia only with the resolution of Kashmir issue according to the wishes of Kashmiri people.The latest abstention by India once again demonstrates the fact that India is not interested in working with the international community for joint global action on issues beyond its domestic national agendas.