Human Rights, Climate, Terrorism and Unresolved Conflicts
Beyond the high politics of great-power rivalry, four cross-cutting issues dominate the global agenda: human rights, climate change, terrorism, and the unresolved conflicts that span generations — most notably Kashmir and Palestine.
A set of 17 universal goals with 169 targets, adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 (Resolution 70/1, "Transforming Our World"), to be achieved by 2030. They succeeded the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000–2015) and apply to developed and developing countries alike.
Human rights in a contested era
The post-1945 human rights project rests on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the two 1966 Covenants on civil-political and economic-social-cultural rights. Three contemporary debates challenge it:
- Universality versus cultural relativism — Asian, Islamic and African states often resist what they see as Western framings, while affirming the underlying values.
- Civil-political versus economic-social rights — The Global South frequently argues that the "right to development" cannot be subordinated to procedural civil rights alone.
- Digital rights — Surveillance, data protection, platform liability and online expression have moved to the centre, with the EU's Digital Services Act (2022) setting a global template.
The Human Rights Council in Geneva (47 members, including Pakistan in 2024-26) conducts the Universal Periodic Review of every UN member every four-and-a-half years.
Climate governance
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 launched a process that produced two big agreements:
| Agreement | Year | Core idea |
|---|---|---|
| Kyoto Protocol | 1997 | Binding emission cuts for developed countries only |
| Paris Agreement | 2015 | Universal Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); 1.5°C / 2°C goal |
The COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh (2022) delivered, under Pakistani diplomatic leadership of the G77+China, agreement on a Loss and Damage Fund — operationalised at COP28 in Dubai (2023), which also produced the first formal text on "transitioning away from fossil fuels."
For Pakistan, climate is not a peripheral issue. The country contributes less than one percent of historical emissions but consistently ranks in the top ten most affected in Germanwatch's Climate Risk Index.
Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Terrorism and counter-terrorism
The global threat picture has shifted since 2014:
- Islamic State lost its territorial caliphate in 2019 but persists as ISKP (Afghanistan), ISWAP (West Africa), and IS-Mozambique.
- Al-Qaeda survives in fragmented form; Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul in July 2022.
- Right-wing and incel violence in the West is now classified as terrorism in several jurisdictions.
- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Pakistan from its grey list in October 2022 after Pakistan implemented two action plans.
Pakistan's CT story is two-sided: it has been a frontline state in counter-terrorism (over 80,000 casualties since 2001) and subject to allegations of selective tolerance by partner countries — a tension that defines its FATF, US and Indian files.
The Palestine question
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict re-entered the centre of global politics on 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacks killed roughly 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages. Israel's subsequent military operation in Gaza has killed, by Palestinian Ministry of Health figures, over 40,000 Palestinians by mid-2024, with mass displacement and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Key legal developments:
- South Africa v. Israel — January 2024 ICJ provisional-measures order under the Genocide Convention.
- ICC arrest warrant applications — Against Israeli and Hamas leaders in May 2024.
- UN General Assembly — Multiple resolutions calling for ceasefire and humanitarian access.
Pakistan does not recognise Israel and has consistently supported the two-state solution along pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
The Kashmir question
The Kashmir dispute predates both Pakistan and India. The UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolutions of 1948-49 mandated a plebiscite that has never been held. India's revocation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019 — and the Supreme Court of India's December 2023 verdict upholding that step — transformed the situation:
- Jammu & Kashmir downgraded from a state to two Union Territories
- Domicile law changes raising demographic concerns
- Continued OIC and Pakistani diplomatic protest
- Limited international diplomatic traction
Pakistan's three approaches in parallel:
- Multilateral diplomacy at the UNSC, OIC, and HRC
- Bilateral pressure within the limits of suspended ties
- Highlighting human-rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir
For Kashmir and Palestine essays, do not stop at narrating injustice. Show the structural reasons these conflicts resist settlement: nuclear deterrence on the Kashmir front; US Israeli alignment and intra-Palestinian division on the Palestine front; and the failure of the UN Security Council to enforce its own older resolutions.
SDGs progress and globalization debates
At the 2023 SDG Summit, the UN reported that only 15 percent of SDG targets were on track. Pakistan was rated "Stagnating" on several SDGs (4 — Education; 5 — Gender; 6 — Water and Sanitation). Globalization itself is under reassessment — terms like slowbalisation, friendshoring, and plurilateralism describe a world economy that is integrating selectively rather than universally.