The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday adopted by consensus a Pakistan-sponsored resolution reaffirming the right to self-determination for peoples still subjected to colonial, foreign, and alien occupation.
In a statement, Pakistan‘s Permanent Mission to the U.N. said the resolution, ‘Universal Realization of the Right of the Peoples to Self-Determination,’ was adopted during the UNGA’s 80th session. “The consensual adoption of the resolution manifests broad international support for the inalienable right of the peoples facing colonialism, alien domination and foreign occupation,” it added.
“For the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine, the resolution reinforces international attention to their just and legitimate cause and their aspirations for freedom and dignity in accordance with U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions,” it said.
The resolution was among the few resolutions that was not put up for a vote in the UNGA and allowed to pass by consensus.
Earlier, addressing the UNGA on the occasion of the International Day against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Usman Jadoon said self-determination was “not merely a historical aspiration, but an enduring obligation” of the international community.
“Recent developments in the Middle East demonstrate that lasting peace cannot be achieved through the continued denial and suppression of the legitimate right to self-determination of the Palestinian people,” he stressed. Reminding the UNGA that Kashmir was not a bilateral dispute but an internationally recognized one, he recalled the multiple resolutions recognizing the legitimate right of self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“A just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains central to the establishment of durable peace in South Asia,” he said, warning continued inaction risked further regional instability.