UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations panel Tuesday adopted, by consensus, a resolution renewing the global commitment to the principle of self-determination for peoples still subjected to colonial, foreign and alien occupation, with Pakistan underlining that the UN places that right at the heart of its purposes and principles.
Co-sponsored by 65 countries, the resolution, submitted by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, 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.
The text is expected to come up for General Assembly’s endorsement next month.
Under its terms, the 193-member Assembly would declare its firm opposition to acts of foreign military intervention and occupation suppressing the right to self-determination of peoples and nations, calling upon those States responsible to cease them.
Introducing the resolution, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said that there were people still living under foreign occupation who are still denied this fundamental freedom. “Their legitimate aspirations 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 right of self-determination, as a fundamental principle enshrined in the UN Charter, has been codified in many international documents, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights, the Pakistani envoy said.