Pakistan Highlights Plight of Palestinians, Kashmiris at UNSC’s Food Insecurity Debate at UNSC’s Food Insecurity Debate

“While food insecurity accompanies most conflict situations, it becomes particularly acute and endemic in situations of prolonged foreign occupation,” Ambassador Mohammad Aamir Khan, Deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member Council.

Over 80 speakers took part in the debate, calling for unity in tackling global hunger and human suffering due to conflict and violence. They also urged Russia to rejoin the Black Sea Grain Initiative that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty.

“In this debate, attention has been devoted to some of these situations, but not others — I would like to draw special attention to the situations of the peoples of occupied Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Aamir Khan told high-level delegates from around the world.

“Both these peoples have suffered foreign occupation for seven decades,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding, “They have been subjected to blockades and lockdowns, collective punishments, including deliberate economic and food deprivation.

“And, so far, they have been virtually abandoned by an indifferent international community.”

The best solution to food insecurity in conflict zones, he said, was the earliest cessation of the use of force and violence and the durable and just solution to these conflicts.

On Jammu and Kashmir, Aamir Khan urged the Security Council to secure the implementation of its resolutions calling for a UN-supervised plebiscite to enable the people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination.

“Meanwhile,” he added, “the world community must ensure that economic deprivation and food insecurity are not utilized by the Indian occupation to crush the legitimate freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people. “

Calling for an early end to the Ukraine war, the Pakistani envoy commended the UN Secretary-General’s Black Sea Grain initiative, which aimed to ease the impact of the conflict and accompanying restrictions on food security.

‘We hope this agreement will be revived at the earliest with the concurrence of the parties and implemented effectively and comprehensively,” he added.

Food insecurity requires immediate solidarity and structural solutions, Aamir Khan underscored, stressing the need to mobilize food supplies to those facing famine and food insecurity.

Further, he added, it was essential to expand food production, especially in the developing countries, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The Pakistani envoy’s remarks on Jammu and Kashmir drew a response from an Indian representative that led to a verbal exchange with a Pakistani delegate.

Indian representative Madhu Sudan said that Pakistan had “misused” the Council’s discussion on food insecurity.

Emphasizing that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India is non-negotiable, the Indian representative accused Pakistan — without naming it — of involvement in terrorism. He urged Pakistan not to indulge in “friviolous” allegations against India.

The Pakistani delegate, Rabia Ijaz, responding to India, said “The biggest falsehood that India keeps repeating” is that Kashmir is a so-called integral part of that country.

All relevant Council resolutions state that the final disposition of Kashmir will be determined by its people through a United Nations-supervised plebiscite, which India has accepted and with which it is bound to comply, she said. “If India has nothing to hide, it must accept a United Nations commission of inquiry and implement the resolution on that plebiscite.”

Earlier, Blinken, US Secretary of State and Council President for the month, speaking in his national capacity, stressed that hunger must not be weaponized.

Every member of the United Nations should tell Moscow “Enough using the Black Sea as blackmail, enough treating the most vulnerable people as leverage, enough of this unjustified, unconscionable war,” he said.

Reena Ghelani, UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator, reported that the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity reached a quarter billion in 2022 — the highest recorded in recent years. “It is a man-made crisis that has been swelling for years. We are now at a tipping point,” she warned, stressing that conflict and insecurity remain key drivers of hunger and famine.

Each of the seven countries where people faced famine-like conditions in 2022 was affected by armed conflict or extreme levels of violence, she said.

Parties to conflict must respect international humanitarian law and the international community must make better use of existing early warning mechanisms, Ms. Ghelani stressed, underlining the need for adequate humanitarian funding and measures to address the climate and economic crises.