United Nations and UNSG Guterres condemn, reject 26th Constitutional Amendment

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this claim and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team reviewed the official website and social media platforms of the United Nations to check for any statement from UN Secretary General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres on the passage of Pakistan’s 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Multiple posts from social media users on X on October 22, 2024, claimed that the UN rejected the 26th Constitutional Amendment, attributing a quote to UNSG Guterres. However, neither the UN nor its chief made any statement regarding the newly passed legal changes.

The Senate passed the 26th Constitutional Amendment with a two-thirds majority on October 20 and the National Assembly followed suit on October 21.

The Constitution (Twenty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2024, also known as the Constitutional Package, is legislation that takes away the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, sets the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) term at three years and empowers the prime minister to appoint the next CJP from among the three most senior apex court judges.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers had urged the federal government to consider reviewing the proposed reforms via a letter on October 14. The PTI also opposed the amendments.

HOW IT STARTED

On October 22, a PTI supporter and self-described human rights activist made a post on X the claim with the following caption: “Big news. The United Nations has rejected the 26th Constitutional Amendment. Can anyone confirm?”

The post was viewed by over 260,000 people.

The same claim was shared by a fan account of journalist Kashif Abbasi, gaining over 25,000 views.

A fan account for PTI lawyer Syed Naeem Bukhari also posted the same claim, raking in 192,500 views and 2,700 re-shares.

Meanwhile, other users posted an alleged statement from UNSG Guterres regarding the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill.

The caption of the posts said: “The United Nations has rejected the 26th amendment, stating that the former prime minister should be immediately released and that they will not engage in discussions with anyone associated with Form 47 without him.”

The alleged statement said: “The whole world expresses complete disapproval and condems 26th amendment, and form 47 Govt of Pakistan must release founding Chairmen PTI Ex-Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan as soon as possible.”

The UN chief’s name and title were listed below the quote. Additionally, there was a small logo in the bottom right corner of the image of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and significant public interest in the constitutional amendment and its fallout.

Reviewing the official social media accounts of the UN or the UNSG yielded no statement regarding the current political affairs in Pakistan or condemning or rejecting the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Moreover, the image of the UN chief’s alleged statement appeared to be doctored due to errors such as the spelling of “condemns” and using the plural form of chairman.

The punctuation of the quote was also inconsistent, with improper use of commas and missing periods.

Logically speaking, there also stood no reason for a statement from the UNAIDS letterhead addressing constitutional developments in Pakistan. Checking the official website and social media profiles of UNAIDS also yielded no such statement.

A similar graphic with an HIV/AIDS-related message was found in a feature story dated June 10, 2022, on the UNAIDS website.

It is pertinent to note that the United Nations Human Rights office did issue a statement on X on October 22 from High Commissioner Volker Turk expressing concern about the amendment.

The statement said: “Volker Turk concerned that latest constitutional amendments – adopted hastily, without broad consultation and debate – will seriously undermine independence of the judiciary. Constitutional reforms must be in line with international human rights law.”

However, the statement only expressed concern and did not go as far as saying that it rejected the legal changes.

Furthermore, Article 2(7) of the UN Charter is titled “Non-intervention in domestic affairs by the United Nations”.

It states: “The United Nations has no authority to intervene in matters which are within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.”

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that the UN or its chief have rejected and condemned the 26th Constitutional Amendment of Pakistan is false.

While the UN Human Rights office did express concern, there is no evidence or record of the UN or its secretary general issuing any such statement in this regard.

Evidence and References

June 10, 2022, UNAIDS feature story:
https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2022/june/20220609_unsg-report