NEWYORK: The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution with consensus renewing the global commitment to the principle of self-determination for peoples still subjected to colonial, foreign and alien occupation.
Co-sponsored by sixty-five countries, the resolution, submitted by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, was adopted without a vote in the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.
The resolution, which Pakistan has been sponsoring since 1981, serves to focus the world’s attention on the peoples still struggling for their inalienable right to self-determination, including those in Palestine and Kashmir.
Introducing the resolution, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said there are people still living under foreign occupation who are still denied this fundamental freedom.
He said that legitimate aspirations of people living under foreign occupation are often met with excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, communication blockades, and attempts at demographic engineering, including illegal settlements.
The resolution urged the UN Human Rights Council to give special attention to the violation of human rights, especially the right to self-determination, resulting from foreign military intervention, aggression or occupation.
