On December 17, 2018 diplomats in their dark colored attires in New York rejoiced the UN General Assembly drafting the resolution on “right of peoples to self determination”. The resolution which was passed by the world body required the “countries to immediately cease their foreign military intervention in and occupation of foreign countries and territories, as well as acts of repression, discrimination and maltreatment.”

Every year, October 27 serves as a grim reminder of the painfully unresolved status of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute; a seventy-year-long history of a valiant struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their right to self-determination that was promised to them by the International Community through UN resolutions that required a free and fair plebiscite. This day is observed around the world as the “Black Day”.