Pakistan at UN highlights risks to children under occupation, joins global condemnation of Israel

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan at the United Nations on Tuesday said that children “living under foreign occupations” were particularly vulnerable to human rights abuse and violence, as the country joined around 20 countries condemning Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory. 

First Secretary Zulfiqar Ali from Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations said that “as the most vulnerable victims of armed conflict,” children bore “its deepest and most enduring scars.” 

While speaking at the United Nations Security Council meeting, the first secretary said that the recent surge in violence has exposed children to “multiple grave violations,” robbing them “not only of safety, but of childhood itself.”

“Pakistan echoes the concerns expressed in the Secretary General’s last report, which details 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024,” Ali said. 

He added that children living under foreign occupations were particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses and violence. 

“In Occupied Palestinian Territory — both in Gaza and the West Bank — countless children have been killed or scarred for life,” he said. 

Separately, the plight of children in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir was regrettably omitted despite the worsening situation after India’s illegal and unilateral measures of August 5, 2019.  

“This selective omission risks obscuring the full scale of violations affecting children in situations of foreign occupation,” the first secretary said, reminding the council that the “unprovoked and unlawful” Indian aggression in May last year resulted in the “martyrdom of 15 children, among other civilian casualties.”

Pakistan joins global condemnation 

Separately, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan joined the condemnation of Israel's recent moves to tighten its control over the occupied West Bank.

The statement issued early on Tuesday was signed by regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt, European powers France and Spain, as well as Indonesia, Brazil, and Turkey, among others.

It was also endorsed by the secretaries general League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as the Palestinian Authority.

In addition to around three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.