UNITED NATIONS – Pakistan highlighted the struggle of peoples in occupiedPalestine and Kashmir for their right of self-determination at an eventorganized by Russia, South Africa and Vietnam on Friday to mark the 60thanniversary of the landmark UN Declaration on Decolonization.
The commemorative meeting, held on the sidelines of the 75th session of UNGeneral Assembly, was attended by nearly 100 member states.
Adopted by the General Assembly on 14 December 1960, the Declaration on theGranting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, called for theimmediate cessation of “all armed action or repressive measures of allkinds directed against dependent peoples” to enable them to exercisepeacefully and freely their freedom of choice.
“Today, this declaration has become an epitome of freedom struggle fromcolonial oppression, alien domination and foreign occupation,” Aamir Khan,deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the meeting.
But sixty years on, he said millions of people in the “non-governingterritories” and under occupation in Palestine, Kashmir as well as othersituations continue to yearn for their inalienable right toself-determination.
“The ongoing oppression of Kashmiris for the last seven decades. especiallysince 5 August 2019, is regrettable, illegal and in violation of the UNCharter, Security Council resolutions and international law,” Aamir Khansaid, noting that the UN and its various bodies had frequently denouncedthese measures and policies.
“The use of brute force – including naked military force, demographicchanges amounting to genocide, extra judicial killings, arbitrary arrests,enforced disappearances, curfews and lockdowns, communications and economicblackouts and illegal settlements — are outlawed under international law,and are in violations of human rights and other related laws,” thePakistani delegate said.
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“Another concern is using the canard of portraying the legitimate freedomstruggles as ‘terrorism’,” he said.
“The misuse of counter-terrorism laws is most rampant today in situationsof foreign occupation and alien domination, including by discretionarylegal tools to deny the right of self-determination through imposition ofdigital and physical lockdowns and indefinite curfews.”
Pakistan, he said, had always remained a staunch supporter ofdecolonization, and played a leading role in helping many countries inAfrica and Asia to secure independence from their colonial occupiers.
“We also continue to promote the universal realization for the right ofself-determination of all peoples living under alien domination and foreignoccupation,” pointing to Wednesday’s resolution adopted by the 193-memberAssembly.
