Kashmir, the longest unresolved dispute on Security Council’s agenda: A testing case for the Council’s mandate of maintaining international peace and security

Abstract

International peace and security is a meta-principle upon which all the aspects of international development rests. Territorial disputes pose great threat to the objective of maintaining peace and security and consequently to sustainable development. Out of several colonial legacies, Kashmir dispute is one that has the potential, demonstrated in several instances, to become a grave threat to international peace and security. The Security Council has failed to resolve this vital dispute, which makes Kashmir the oldest unresolved dispute on its agenda. The reasons for failure are three. The lack of effective implementation mechanism in international legal order. Failure of international political system to comprehend the explosive nature of this dispute. The fact that the main architects of Sustainable Development Goals, also the P5, are the top arms suppliers to the parties in this dispute. This research paper will provide a brief history of this dispute, timeline of Security Council’s engagement with Kashmir, the obligations and failure of Security Council of maintaining peace and security. It will investigate the fact that how and to what extent this failure of the Security Council has undermined regional and international security and to what extent it can disturb the SDGs agenda.

Keywords

• territorial integrity
• occupation
• right to self-determination
• oldest unresolved dispute
• international peace and security
• Sustainable Development Goals