The exercise of self-defense is the primary right of a nation when a situation demands “immediate and proportionate action” and applies also to attacks by non-state actors, India said at a UN meeting, highlighting several cross-border terrorist attacks and supported by the State such as the 11/26 Attack in Bombay to which the country was subjected by its neighbor.
India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu, told a meeting of the Arria Formula hosted by Mexico that a 1974 UN General Assembly statement requires that a member state must not allow the territory under its control is used for terrorism against another state.
The Arria Formula meetings are informal meetings on “Maintaining the collective security system of the United Nations Charter: the use of force in international law, non-state actors and legitimate defense.”
The Security Council also orders all states to refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or individuals involved in terrorist acts, Naidu said on Wednesday.
Despite this, some states are turning to indirect warfare by supporting non-state actors such as terrorist groups to evade international censorship. That support to non-state actors has ranged from providing and equipping terrorist groups with training, financing, intelligence and weapons to facilitating logistics and recruitment, ”he said.
India for decades has been subject to such relentless, cross-border state-supported terror attacks from our neighborhood, he said.
“Whether it’s the 1993 Mumbai bombings or the random, indiscriminate shootings on 11/26 that witnessed the launch of the lone wolf phenomenon or, more recently, the cowardly attacks in Pathankot and Pulwama, the world has witnessed the el fact that India has been repeatedly targeted by these non-state actors with the active complicity of another host state, ”Naidu said.
Naidu told the meeting that the exercise of self-defense is a primary right of states that must be exercised when the situation is imminent and “requires necessary, immediate and proportionate action” and that customary international law has long recognized the principles governing the use of force in self-defense.
He noted that Article 51 of the UN Charter is not limited to “self-defense” in response to attacks by states only.
“The right to self-defense also applies to attacks by non-state actors. In fact, the source of the attack, be it a state or non-state actor, is irrelevant to the existence of the right to self-defense ”.
Naidu emphasized that India believes that cases in which states have exercised the right of self-defense to attack non-state actors located in other states should be consistent with Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter.
“Preventive actions are taken to combat the threat of terrorism, even without the consent of the state that hosts non-state actors, meet this criterion because such actions are not retaliation since their main motive is to protect the integrity and national sovereignty of the state. affected, “he said.
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