Days after the easing of hostilities with Pakistan following a terror attack that led several dead in India, the former has been appointed as chair of the UN Security Council Committee which oversees the implementation of the sanctions measures on the Taliban, and the vice-chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.
Unjust as it may seem to those in India and elsewhere, suffering from terror attacks, the UN system operates on consensus. This requires members seeking to isolate an erring predator country, like Pakistan, to expend significant political and diplomatic capital, over a sustained period, to convince a large enough cohort of influential members to withdraw their support for such appointments where there is a clear conflict of interest, even though these appointments are just for one year.
Pakistan is at once both a predator and a victim of terror attacks recently in Balochistan. It ranks 2nd on the Global Terrorism Index 2024 with a score of 8.4 out of 10, after Burkina Faso which tops the list as the worst affected. The Index is published annually since 2007, by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace. India ranks 14th, Australia ranks 46th and China 49th with an enviable score of 1.9. India is not proud to rank 14th out of 163 countries with a score of 6.4.
The Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, publishes this index annually since 2007. The score for each country is a weighted average of fatalities, terror incidents, injuries suffered, and hostages taken. Higher scores and rank imply higher terror impact.
Three United Nations Security Council conventions for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1997), Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999) and Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2005) are the only available global guideposts. In 1996, India proposed to the UN Security Council a universal legal framework to counter-terrorism. Sadly, it remains bogged down by disagreements over definitions: Should violent movements for national liberation be included? Should State-sponsored terrorist activities be included?