Right to self-determination: UN attention drawn to Kashmir

The two countries owe a peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute: Marghoob Salim

UNITED NATIONS: Drawing the international community’s attention to the repression and human rights violations of the people in Indian-held Kashmir, Pakistan has called for a peaceful settlement of the decades-old dispute in accordance with UN resolutions. “Such a historic step would usher in an era of peace, security and harmony in South Asia,” Pakistani delegate Marghoob Salim Butt told the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural questions. Speaking in a debate on the “Right of peoples to self-determination,” he said the two countries owe a peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, on the basis of principles of justice and international legality, to the future generations of Pakistanis, Indians and Kashmiris. He said the importance of the right to self-determination was clear, based on international law norms and principles including that it could not be exercised under conditions of foreign occupation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.