Pakistan calls for sweeping reform of ‘unequal’ international financial system

UNITED NATIONS, May 02 (APP): Pakistan Wednesday called for sweeping reform of the international financial system to allow for low-income countries vulnerable to climate impacts to receive adequate help from richer nations.

“The highest priority for us must be to promote more rapid and equitable development, by seeking urgent support for the developing countries and the reform of the partial and unequal international financial, trade, and technology regime to respond to the needs of developing countries,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the Ninth Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development.

The Expert Mechanism provides the Geneva-based Human Rights Council with thematic expertise on the right to development in searching for, identifying, and sharing best practices with Member States and promotes the implementation of the right to development worldwide.

“We believe that while states have the primary responsibility to promote human rights, the UN system and International Financial Institutions have a collective responsibility to align the international economic and development policies in ways that help in the realization of the right to development,” the Pakistani envoy said.

In this context, he underscored the importance of balanced promotion of all human rights, while stressing the need for a conducive environment to realize the fundamental right to development.

Ambassador Akram said that developing countries were unable to make requisite resources for health and education available because of high indebtedness. The concentration of unsustainable debts in developing countries represented a systematic failure that needed to be addressed.

He underscored the importance of promoting all human rights comprehensively and in a balanced manner, noting the organic linkages between the right to development and other human rights. Without a conducive environment created by the fundamental right to development, it was not possible to promote other rights effectively.

“We cannot put more obligations of human rights on States without giving them the necessary resources to create necessary conditions for meeting those obligations.”

While referring to the pressing global challenges, the Pakistani envoy focused on the adverse impact of the unequal global economic system, conflicts, and climate change, which have reversed development gains, plunging millions back into extreme poverty and hindering progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Over a hundred million people have descended back into the ranks of the extreme poverty, who now number over 850 million people, with 350 million facing hunger and destitution. Sixty states are in debt crisis and only 12 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals are on track to be achieved by 2030.”

Calling for operationalizing the right to development, Ambassador Akram proposed the adoption of a legally binding instrument. The Human Rights Council’s approval of a draft international covenant on the right to development after years of negotiations in Geneva was hailed as a crucial step towards strengthening international cooperation and realizing the right to development, he said.

He hoped for the early adoption of the draft covenant by the General Assembly, aiming to bring the Right to Development on par with other human rights frameworks.