Staff Reporter
“Reform of the UN is essential to restore public faith in the world body as confidence in it has been waning across the world.”
This was stated by Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in a public lecture at the Islamabad-based Institute of Strategic Studies.
In the session chaired by the head of ISS, Aizaz Chaudhry, Ambassador Lodhi who recently returned home, gave a comprehensive talk on Pakistan and the UN and the challenges being posed to multilaterism.
Detailing Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts at the UN to highlight the issue of occupied Kashmir, she said while the August 16 meeting of the Security Council was a significant development, the inability of the UN to implement its own resolutions on the dispute has long been a source of great disappointment in Pakistan.
The non-implementation of not one, but eleven Security Council resolutions on occupied Kashmir, has obviously shaped public perceptions about the utility of the United Nations in the country.
Dr. Lodhi asserted that public questioning of the UN’s relevance is not limited to Pakistan. “We are witnessing a growing wave of scepticism across the world about the UN and whether it is fit for purpose.
This, she said, is happening at a time when multilateralism is facing new threats and challenges, and has been in retreat as a result of major powers rejecting or renouncing treaties or walking out of international bodies.
The former Pakistani envoy said whatever its drawbacks, multilaterism is needed more than especially when a rules-based international system is under assault. An important way to strengthen multilaterism would be to strengthen the role of UN. But, she added, this objective can best be achieved by a comprehensive reform of the Security Council.
In her lecture at the Institute, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi provided a rundown of negotiations at the UN on reform of the Security Council. This process, she explained, has been in deadlock due to the insistence by a handful of states for Permanent seats for themselves in the Council.
