NEW YORK, Dec 19 (DNA): Pakistan highlighted the struggle of peoples in
occupied Palestine and Kashmir for their right of self-determination at
an event organized by Russia, South Africa and Vietnam on Friday to mark
the 60th anniversary of the landmark UN Declaration on Decolonization.

The commemorative meeting, held on the sidelines of the 75th session of
UN General Assembly, was attended by nearly 100 member states.

Adopted by the General Assembly on 14 December 1960, the Declaration on
the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, called
for the immediate cessation of “all armed action or repressive measures
of all kinds directed against dependent peoples” to enable them to
exercise peacefully and freely their freedom of choice.

“Today, this declaration has become an epitome of freedom struggle from
colonial 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-governing
territories” and under occupation in Palestine, Kashmir as well as other
situations continue to yearn for their inalienable right to
self-determination.

“The ongoing oppression of Kashmiris for the last seven decades.
especially since 5 August 2019, is regrettable, illegal and in violation
of the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and international law,”
Aamir Khan said, noting that the UN and its various bodies had
frequently denounced these measures and policies.

“The use of brute force – including naked military force, demographic
changes amounting to genocide, extra judicial killings, arbitrary
arrests, enforced disappearances, curfews and lockdowns, communications
and economic blackouts and illegal settlements — are outlawed under
international law, and are in violations of human rights and other
related laws,” the Pakistani delegate said.

“Another concern is using the canard of portraying the legitimate
freedom struggles as ‘terrorism’,” he said.

“The misuse of counter-terrorism laws is most rampant today in
situations of foreign occupation and alien domination, including by
discretionary legal tools to deny the right of self-determination
through imposition of digital and physical lockdowns and indefinite
curfews.”

Pakistan, he said, had always remained a staunch supporter of
decolonization, and played a leading role in helping many countries in
Africa and Asia to secure independence from their colonial occupiers.

“We also continue to promote the universal realization for the right of
self-determination of all peoples living under alien domination and
foreign occupation,” pointing to Wednesday’s resolution adopted by the
193-member Assembly. DNA

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