Special Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations General Assembly committee has unanimously adopted a Pakistan-sponsored resolution reaffirming the inalienable right to self-determination for peoples living under colonial, foreign, or alien occupation.
The resolution co-sponsored by 65 countries was presented by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aamir Iftikhar Ahmad, before the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian, and cultural issues.
Pakistan has been tabling this resolution annually since 1981. It aims to draw global attention to peoples still struggling for their fundamental right to self-determination, including the Palestinian and Kashmiri people. The resolution is expected to be forwarded to the full General Assembly for formal adoption next month.
According to the text, the 193-member General Assembly strongly opposes foreign military interventions and occupations that suppress the right to self-determination. It also urges states responsible for such actions to immediately cease them.
Addressing the committee, Ambassador Ahmad emphasized that many peoples remain under foreign occupation and are denied basic freedoms. He highlighted that legitimate aspirations for self-determination are often met with excessive force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, communication blackouts, and demographic engineering, including illegal settlements.
He reiterated that the right to self-determination is a core principle enshrined in the UN Charter and recognized in multiple international covenants, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
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