Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
Chairman
World Forum for Peace & justice
February 16, 2025
The 63rd session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD63) under the chairmanship of Ambassador Krzysztof Szczerski of Poland concluded this week at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Commission is the advisory body responsible for the social development pillar of global development.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Junhua Li, United Nations Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs said that while progress in social development goals has been remarkable over the past three decades, it has been fragile and uneven, facing increasing risks, insecurities, and vulnerabilities. 692 million people are still living in extreme poverty, and 733 million are facing hunger. Inequalities are on the rise, decent work is scarce, and health care, social protection and quality education remain a luxury for the few, rather than a right for all.
Ambassador Fergal Mythen of Ireland articulated it most effectively when he said that “Ireland believes that development cannot be sustainable unless it is inclusive and grounded in respect for human rights.”
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, World Forum for Peace & Justice said that the issue of poverty eradication should be the theme of the twenty-first century. Never before have so many suffered amidst liberty and luxury for the few. The wealth of single individuals exceeds the wealth of many nations. While citizens of some African countries are starving, the rich countries are beset with obesity. Discrepancies of these types are morally disturbing. The United Nations is ideally suited to ending these shocking inequalities because it hosts all the nations of the world and endows each with identical voting power in the General Assembly. The poorest and the weakest are equal to the richest and the strongest.
Dr. Fai added that next to the elimination of poverty agenda should be securing for every man, woman, and child a right to flourishing health, a clean environment, comfortable housing, and nutritious food. The goal is not a choice but a moral obligation. A preferred position for the poor is the North Star of all religions. Thus, rich countries should transfer much of their riches to poor countries.
Besides on the list of social development priorities should be the ending of all racial, ethnic, or class hatreds or enmities. Think of the horrifying quantity of violence in the world whose fundamental cause can be traced back to such social divisions. It infects every country on the planet. And if even one person suffers from invidious discrimination, then all are threatened, and civilization has been tarnished. The cases of Islamophobia and Antisemitism spike within past two years not only in the USA and Europe but around the globe. The United Nations Human Rights Council is ideally suited to fashion a program to achieve the desired result. It can assemble the best thinkers and models to draft laws and educational programs that will deter and prevent the abomination of sharp social divisions.
Dr. Fai alerted that the most urgent approach to promoting global partnership for social development is the ending of warfare. War, whether intramural or international, wreaks havoc on the elements necessary for health, housing, education, employment, the rule of law, the environment, and happiness generally. War is enormously expensive. It diverts resources from schools, hospitals, roads, and telecommunications to AK-47s, Kalashnikovs, missiles, bombs, and artillery shells. Many are maimed and become permanently disabled from productive employment. Others become emotionally and psychologically disturbed. War also creates a culture antithetical to democracy and the rule of law. It teaches that disputes should be resolved by the bullet in lieu of the ballot box.
Dr. Fai observed that the prime example of the havoc created by the war is India and Pakistan relations and the bone of contention of that chaos is the unresolved Kashmir conflict. Both India and Pakistan are spending billions of dollars to enrich their military buildup. India insists upon being the world’s largest importer of arms. The resources of the two countries should be redirected from bombs to books, from submarines to schools, from missiles to medicines, from frigates to food, from runways for bombers to roads for people. This is not starry-eyed thinking. No insurmountable obstacle prevents Narendra Modi and Mian Shahab Sharif from reconciling and boosting prosperity by addressing the root cause of the tensions – Kashmir dispute.
Further, war destroys hospitals and handicaps the supply of medicine. Medical workers frequently shy from dangerous conditions. And refugee camps are notorious for insalubrious quarters. Once again, the attacks on hospitals, medical and assistant staff, ambulance personnel and patients themselves are further evidence of India’s depravity in Kashmir. The Indian army has destroyed dozens of ambulances and damaged several hospitals and thrashed the patients treated for bullet wounds. We demand that doctors without borders and International Red Cross be allowed to have free access to occupied Kashmir so that they can mitigate the miseries faced by the people.
Again, as we know that war wreaks havoc and that is true in Kashmir where the human rights organizations have expressed profound pain over heartbreaking conditions of victims of pellet guns used by Indian soldiers. Hundreds of pellet victims have lost the vision of either one eye or both. The use of pellet guns violates not only ethical standards but also violates the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force, the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
Lastly, Dr. Fai said that the consistent application of human rights standards would allow a just and peaceful resolution of the seventy-eight-year-old issue. It would directly help India to extricate itself from the quagmire of international conflicts and accumulation of weaponry, to realize its economic and technological potential and truly rise to the stature of a great power. It would also release Pakistan from a crippling burden. It would thus bring the lasting credit to the foreign policy of the world powers in the region of South Asia.
Dr. Fai is also the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum.
He can be reached at: WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435. Or. gnfai2003@yahoo.com
www.Kashmirawareness.org