At UNSC, India abstains from voting on resolution that exempts humanitarian aid from sanctions

New York, Dec 10: India on Friday abstained from voting in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on a resolution, presented by the US and Ireland, that exempts humanitarian aid efforts from sanctions. It was adopted by 14 members of the 15-member Council.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj said in the explanation that India's concerns were triggered by proven instances of terrorist groups including Pakistan-based terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed "taking full advantage of such humanitarian carve-outs and making a mockery of sanctions regimes."

Kamboj said, "There have been several cases of terrorist groups in our neighbourhood, reincarnating themselves as humanitarian organizations and civil society groups precisely to evade the sanctions. These terrorist organizations use the umbrella of the humanitarian assistance space to raise funds and recruit fighters."

"India will call for caution and due diligence be used when providing humanitarian aid to groups that are prohibited under UN Security Council Resolution 1267, who continue to thrive with full state hospitality in territories universally acknowledged as terrorist havens by the international community," she added.

The Indian envoy continued by saying that India has requested the resolution to assure UN oversight of humanitarian exclusions, expertise in "robust reporting," which was not completely addressed in the legislation, and sanctions. "To prevent such activities, she said, India had called for the resolution to ensure monitoring of humanitarian exemptions by UN experts monitoring sanctions and robust reporting, which were not fully addressed in the text, so India abstained," Kamboj said.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution exempting humanitarian aid from all current and future UN sanctions regimes, a vote hailed as "historic" by the US as saving lives and addressing long-standing issues of sanctions hampering relief supplies. The proposed resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour, nil against and 1 absentee.