India has slammed Pakistan for its "unacceptable" remarks that persistent human rights violations could justify violent extremism in Kashmir, asserting that no cause can justify terrorist acts and terrorism is the biggest violation of human rights.
"Yesterday we heard a delegate cloak territorial aggrandisement in an integral part of my country, i.E., Jammu and Kashmir, in an unacceptable manner," Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN M K Rao said at a session on 'Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism' in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly.
Rao was referring to the remarks by Pakistan's envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, who had said in the session on October 3 that the international community agrees that "continued and persistent violations of human rights contribute to violent extremism".
"Yet the killings continue in Kashmir and in Palestine. Brutalisation and oppression of people struggling for their legitimate right to self-determination constitutes state terrorism. That too needs to be addressed," Lodhi had said.
Rao, in his statement yesterday, rejected the Pakistani envoy's assertion that persistent violation of human rights could justify terrorism or violent extremism.
"Terrorist acts are criminal acts; no matter whenever, wherever and by whomsoever these are committed. 'Cause' does not justify terrorist acts. In fact, terrorism is undoubtedly the biggest violation of human rights," he said, adding that the resort to the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy cannot be tolerated.
Rao told the committee that nations that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups should be held responsible for their wrongful acts.
"The perpetrators of terrorist attacks must be brought to justice," he said, underscoring that the international community needs to adopt a policy of "zero-tolerance" towards terrorism.
"Our collective condemnation of terrorism must be loud, clear and without any ambiguity. It is our firm conviction that no belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism, which should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic group," he said.
"The fight against terrorism has to be unrelenting and fought across all fronts. The international community cannot afford selective approaches in dealing with terrorist groups or in dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism," Rao said.
He stressed that the international community must step up its collective efforts with real time cooperation among member states to confront the scourge of terrorism squarely and decisively.
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Rao said it is a failure of the international community that 10 years after the proposal of a comprehensive convention against terrorism was initiated by India before the General Assembly, efforts to develop the draft of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) have not yet been fruitful.
"It is entangled in the issues of who and under what situations get exempted from the coverage of the convention. In dealing with this issue, we need to remind ourselves that there can be no distinction between acceptable and unacceptable or good and bad terrorism," he said.
Rao said Heads of State and Government had at the World Summit in 2005 mandated "to make every effort to reach an agreement on and conclude" the CCIT during the 60th session of the General Assembly.
"We failed to fulfill that mandate. We failed not once or twice, but ten successive years. This is 11th year and we are in 71st session," he said.
Rao said members of the Sixth Committee should acknowledge that "we are unable to fulfil the task; we are unable to measure up the expectations of the World leaders. As we are not up to it, we must be ready to accept other bodies or fora to carry forward this.
