India strongly condemned the countries that use veto power to block evidence-based terrorist listings at the United Nations Security Council saying that the practice is uncalled for and smacks of doublespeak.
“Let us turn to the subsidiary bodies inhabiting a subterranean world with their custom-made working methods and obscure practices which do not find any legal basis in the charter or any of the council’s resolutions,” said India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj.
“For instance, while we do get to know of the decisions of these committees on listing, the decisions on rejecting listing requests are not made public,” she added.
In a veiled attack on China, she said, “This is a disguised veto, but an even more impervious one that indeed merits a discussion amongst the wider membership.”
“For genuine evidence-based listing proposals for globally sanctioned terrorists to be blocked without giving any due justification is uncalled for and smacks of doublespeak when it comes to the council’s commitment to tackling the challenge of terrorism,” she added.
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India also made a strong case for reforms within the United Nations saying that the council must evolve as the threats to international peace and security evolve. Speaking at the council, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj asked those “blocking” progress to heed calls for genuine reforms.
“…We can no longer hide behind the smokescreen of the Intergovernmental Negotiations by delivering entrenched national positions in a process which has no time frame, and no text,” Kamboj said at the United Nations.
“We should embark upon the only established process in the United Nations, which is by engaging in negotiations based on text and not through speaking at each other or past each other, as we have done for the past three decades,” she said.
“As the threats to international peace and security evolve, so must this council. We ask those blocking progress on this vital issue to heed calls for genuine reform and contribute to making this council truly fit for purpose for the 21st century,” she added.