On September 21, 2016, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the United Nations General Assembly in Turtle Bay, New York City. His speech, and India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s rebuttal took place in the immediate aftermath of an attack by militants on an Indian army post in Uri sector. While tensions between the two nuclear neighbours soared amongst war rhetoric back at home, their leaders took to the world stage at the UN General Assembly to make a case against the other’s human rights violations and drum up international support for their position.

The General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations system, along with the Security Council, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council and the International Court of Justice. It is the only organ that is universally representative, and each of the 193 member states command one vote, regardless of their size and population. This means that within the General Assembly, China, with 20 per cent of the world’s population, holds the same voting power as Tonga, which has 0.001 per cent of the world’s population.

These voting powers come into play in several important areas of international diplomacy. The main function of the General Assembly is to discuss, debate and make recommendations about a wide array of topics pertaining to international peace and security -- which include development, public health, disarmament, international disputes, human rights, education, humanitarian assistance and climate change amongst others.

However, the Assembly exercises significant power through its role in deciding the annual budget of the United Nations, as well the assessed financial contributions of each member state.

The Assembly’s diplomatic power lies in its responsibilities to elect the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council for a two-year term, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the judges of the International Court of Justice. The non-permanent members are decided through a vote in the General Assembly, and successful candidates must acquire two-thirds of the total vote.

Although non-elected members do not enjoy the veto powers of the Permanent 5 -- the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China -- their votes must be acquired in order for a resolution to be passed, since nine concurring votes are required for the adoption of a resolution. This allows for diplomatic power in the chambers.

Additionally, the presidency of the Security Council is also rotated on a monthly basis between all 15 members, which gives non-permanent members agenda-setting powers. Pakistan has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council seven times, including as recently as 2013.

The election of the Secretary-General of the United Nations is also the responsibility of the General Assembly, one that allows member states to practice extensive sideline diplomacy and gain support and concessions in exchange for their vote for another member state’s candidate.

Like the Security Council, a General Assembly resolution requires two-thirds of the vote, and its resolutions serve as non-binding recommendations to the concerned member state -- they have no legal power and do not constitute as international law. They are, however, a communication of the sentiment of the international community, and carry symbolic and political influence.

Additionally, informal deliberations within the General Assembly have led to new treaty bodies that enjoy legislative power, such as the International Criminal Court, and the General Assembly does contribute to international customary law, the best-known example of which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Despite their non-binding nature, UNGA resolutions have been criticised for reflecting the "lowest common denominator", resulting from an extensive focus on achieving consensus according to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Michael Doyle, an international relations expert and aide to Secretary-General Annan, claims that this is a result of the assembly being "an important institution that never really sorted itself out", leading to insufficient deliberation and a lack of informed discussion.

There have been attempts to revitalise the work of the General Assembly and imbue it with more powers. As pointed out by former Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, revitalisation "is a political rather than a procedural matter".

Opposition to revitalisation efforts stem mostly from countries of the global south who want to maintain a strong say in deliberations as compared to the wealthy donor nations. Their power in the General Assembly stems from voting blocs; developing countries from the global south have aligned as the G77, representing 40 per cent of the total strength of the Assembly.

Efforts to make the Security Council more representative are similarly hampered early on by regional rivalries. Revitalisation efforts have caused some self-reflection however, and have led to resolutions stating that the quality of General Assembly resolutions needs to be improved, greater efforts should be made to follow up on the implementation and that resolutions should be backed with more political will to ensure their implementation.

Despite these political realities, the General Assembly’s annual meeting in September draws leaders from around the world, and the sidelines of the annual ministerial meetings are abuzz with meetings between premiers. Additionally, significant summits also take place on the sidelines of the General Assembly, capitalising on the presence of world leaders in New York City, such as the peacekeeping summit in 2015. Generally, both the general debate within the Assembly and the meetings on the sidelines, are focused on the current crises.

This year, attention was given to the refugee crisis, the challenges of defeating the so-called Islamic State and the Zika Virus, while the topic for the general debate was ‘The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world’.

It was against this backdrop that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif once again took to the stage in front of his fellow world premiers. His speech covered development, terrorism and Operations Zarb-e-Azb before shifting to Pakistan’s efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. He then narrowed his focus on Kashmir and India for the remaining half of his speech. He accused India of reigniting the latest Kashmiri intifada through human rights violations and consistent unwillingness to resolve the Kashmir issue and hold the plebiscite demanded by the Security Council’s 1948 resolution on the issue.

Unfortunately, none of this was new information for his audience. Pakistan has been bringing up the issue of Kashmir for almost 70 years. The UN has taken notice, and it has passed eight Security Council resolutions pertaining to Kashmir. It has decided on a solution to the problem; demilitarisation of the region followed by a plebiscite for self-determination by the Kashmiri people. These conditions have not been met. The political will to implement the decisions does not exist in the region.

Until this political will can be garnered, the Pakistani premier’s yearly speech to the General Assembly only serves to remind the world that the conflict in Kashmir remains unresolved, and the Kashmiri people continue to suffer.