India on Friday abstained from voting on a resolution in the United Nations Security Council to allow humanitarian aid to sanctioned entities around the world, becoming the only country that didn’t cast their vote.
All 14 other members of the council voted in favour of the resolution.
“Our concerns emanate from proven instances of terrorist groups taking full advantage of such humanitarian carve-outs, and making a mockery of sanction regimes, including that of the 1267 Sanctions Committee,” India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj said.
The resolution was tabled by the United States and Ireland.
It proposed an exemption under which the processing or payment of funds and the provision of goods and services needed to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance would not be considered as violations of sanctions.
India holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council at present.
While abstaining, India expressed that “the unintended consequences of sanction measures, including humanitarian consequences, increasingly emphasized by Member States and other stakeholders needed an effective redressal.”
Under the United Nations 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime, any member state of the world body can propose that an individual or an entity be declared as a terrorist or terrorist group.
Kamboj said that terrorist outfits must not be allowed to misuse the garb of humanitarian cover to expand their activities. She added that such exemptions must not lead to mainstreaming of terrorist organisations.
