UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations General Assembly this week approved a Pakistan-sponsored resolution that reaffirms the right to self-determination of peoples subjected to occupation.

The resolution, called the “Universal Realization of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination,” said “self-determination is a fundamental condition for the guarantee and observance of human rights” and called on “states responsible to cease immediately ... military intervention in and occupation of foreign countries and territories.”

Pakistan’s envoy to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, said by adopting Pakistan’s resolution, the UNGA had “reaffirmed” Pakistan’s legal, political and moral case in support of all peoples, including the Kashmiri people, “to struggle for self-determination against foreign occupation by all means available to them.”

Pakistan and India both claim disputed Kashmir in full but rule it in part. UN peacekeepers have been deployed since 1949 to observe a cease-fire between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.

India has long accused Pakistan of training, arming and sending militants to Kashmir. Pakistan denies this and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support to non-violent separatists in the region.

The UN Security Council adopted several resolutions in 1948 and in the 1950s on the dispute between India and Pakistan over the region, including one which says a plebiscite should be held to determine the future of mostly Muslim Kashmir. Another resolution also calls upon both sides to “refrain from making any statements and from doing or causing to be done or permitting any acts which might aggravate the situation.”