New york: At the United Nations, Pakistan has emphasized that durable peace and the protection of human rights can only be achieved by addressing all situations of foreign occupation and the denial of the right to self-determination. In a statement during the presentation of the Report of Human Rights Council in General Assembly, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, mentioned Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, where peoples continue to face oppression and dispossession.

According to Radio Pakistan, Ambassador Ahmad urged the Council to employ its prevention mandate proactively to uphold international law and protect the rights of all occupied and oppressed peoples without discrimination. Meanwhile, exercising the right to reply, First Secretary at Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Sarfaraz Ahmed Gohar, stated that Jammu and Kashmir is not, never has been, and will never be an integral part of India. He emphasized it is a disputed territory, whose final disposition is to be decided by the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir through a UN-supervised plebiscite, as demanded by numerous resolutions of the Security Council.

The First Secretary further stated that India is under a legally binding obligation under Article 25 of the UN Charter to implement the resolutions of the Security Council and enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination.