A senior Pakistani diplomat has called for the international community to act in a “consistent and uniform” manner to all transgressions, not selectively, as she highlighted the gross violations particularly in occupied territories that continue to the subject of repeated UN Security Council resolutions.

“We should not allow human suffering to be selectively prioritized for political convenience or to serve narrow interests,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said while speaking in the UN General Assembly debate on responsibility to protect and prevent crimes against humanity, in which she also cautioned against becoming oblivious to the suffering of those who have been displaced and marginalized.

Agreed at a summit of world leaders in 2005, the concept of ‘Responsibility to Protect’, also known as “R2P”, holds States responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met.