Bar welcomes UNSA resolution on right to self determination

Srinagar: Kashmir High Court Bar Association on Sunday welcomed unanimous resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, reaffirming that the universal realization of the right of people to self-determination as a fundamental condition, for the effective guarantee and observance of Human Rights.

The resolution, sponsored by Pakistan and 75 other countries passed by United Nations General Assembly, is expected to come up for General Assembly’s endorsement next month,

“The Bar Association maintains that the principle of self-determination has been recognized to mean that all people have a right to determine freely their own socio-political and economic circumstance,” a spokesman of the lawyers body said.

Even the ‘Declaration on principle of International Law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states’ provides that people entitled to self-determination have a right to the establishment of a sovereign and independent state, as one mode of implementing the right of self-determination, if they so choose, it said.

Similarly, the lawyers’ body said, the Article-I of the Resolution on the definition of aggression, suggests that the use of force to realize these goals was permissible.

The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights 1966 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966, which were ratified by India on April 10, 1979, with certain uncalled for reservations, as well as “Vienna Declaration 1993” and other well-known International Covenants and Treaties, also recognize the right of self-determination of the people. “In terms of all these Covenants, the people of Kashmir are entitled to enjoy the right of self-determination, which right for various political and economic expediencies has been denied to them by India, for the last 70 years,” the Bar said.

The lawyers’ body said in order to stop bloodshed in Kashmir and respect the human rights of the people, the United Nations General Assembly, would not only endorse the latest resolution but will also take effective and concrete steps to implement all its resolutions, passed in relation to Kashmir during the last 70 years, so that peace and tranquillity was established in the sub-continent and “no one is allowed to violate the human rights of the people of Kashmir, with impunity and without any accountability.”