RIGHTS OF PALESTINIANS OVER NATURAL RESOURCES REAFFIRMED IN TEXT APPROVED BY SECOND COMMITTEE
Press Release
GA/EF/2803
RIGHTS OF PALESTINIANS OVER NATURAL RESOURCES REAFFIRMED IN TEXT APPROVED BY SECOND COMMITTEE
19971202 Resolutions Also Approved on Migration and Development, Poverty Eradication, Cultural Development, Southern African Development CommunityThe General Assembly would call on Israel not to exploit or endanger the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, by the terms of a draft resolution approved by recorded vote this morning in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial). Four draft resolutions were approved without a vote.
By terms of the draft resolution on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, approved by a recorded vote of 124 in favour to 2 (Israel and the United States) against, with 13 abstentions, the Assembly would reaffirm the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land and water. (For details of the vote, see Annex.)
Acting without a vote, the Committee approved texts that would have the Assembly:
-- Call upon the international community to make the option of remaining in one's country viable for all people by ensuring a better economic balance between developed and developing countries;
-- Call upon all donors to give priority to the eradication of poverty and invite the United Nations system to support developing countries, particularly African countries and the least developed countries, in eradicating poverty and ensuring basic social services;
-- Invite all Member States, intergovernmental bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, and non-governmental organizations to intensify their efforts to integrate cultural factors into their development programmes and projects, in order to ensure sustainable development that fully respects cultural diversity; and
-- Call upon the Member States and agencies of the United Nations system that had not yet established contact and relationships with the Southern African Development Community to do so.
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Statements on the draft texts were made by the representatives of Austria, Canada, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Libya, Luxembourg (on behalf of the European Union), Mexico, Russian Federation, Syria, United States and Yemen, as well as the Observer for Palestine.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. Wednesday, 3 December, to take action on other draft resolutions.
Committee Work Programme
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to take action on five draft resolutions.
By a draft resolution on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources (document A/C.2/52/L.6/Rev.1), the Assembly would reaffirm the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land and water. The Assembly would call upon Israel not to exploit, to cause loss or depletion of or to endanger the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan. It would request the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly at its fifty-third session on the implementation of the resolution. The Assembly would also decide to include in the agenda of its fifty-third session the item on the subject.
The resolution is sponsored by Algeria, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Under the terms of a draft resolution on cultural development (document A/C.2/52/L.33) submitted by the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Hans-Peter Glanzer (Austria) on the basis of informal consultations held on a draft contained in document A/C.2/52/L.10, the Assembly would invite all Member States, intergovernmental bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, and non-governmental organizations to:
-- Ensure that the lessons and experiences gained and the momentum generated through the World Decade for Cultural Development, as well as the World Commission on Culture and Development, were reflected in all their development strategies, as appropriate;
-- Submit their comments to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the report of the World Commission on Culture and Development, entitled Our Creative Diversity; and
-- Intensify their efforts to integrate cultural factors into their development programmes and projects, in order to ensure sustainable human development that fully respects cultural diversity, taking into account their cultural values and identity.
Stressing the importance of the interaction between culture and development, the Assembly would encourage UNESCO to promote throughout the United Nations system a greater awareness of the crucial relationship between culture and development, taking into account the diversity of cultures.
The Assembly would welcome the convening in Stockholm in 1998 of an intergovernmental conference on cultural policies, organized by UNESCO, and
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request the Secretary-General to include the outcome of that conference in his report on the implementation of the present resolution to the Assembly at its fifty-third session. The Secretary-General would also be requested to include recommendations for the integration of the cultural dimension in development activities in the elaboration of the international development strategy for the next United Nations development decade.
By a draft resolution on the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (document A/C.2/52/L.34), submitted by the Vice- Chairman of the Committee, Hans-Peter Glanzer (Austria), on the basis of informal consultations held on a previous text contained in document A/C.2/52/L.30, the Assembly would call on all donors to give priority to the eradication of poverty in their assistance budgets and programmes, on both bilateral and multilateral bases. It would also invite the relevant funds, programmes and agencies of the United Nations system to support developing countries, particularly African countries and the least developed countries, in their efforts to eradicate poverty and ensure basic social services.
The Assembly would also invite the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to consider extending projects under the rubric "Poverty Strategies Initiative" to all developing countries in order to make the initiative closely geared to the poverty eradication goals of the World Summit for Social Development and to strengthen assistance in the elaboration of national plans, programmes and strategies to eradicate poverty, particularly in African countries and the least developed countries. It would also call upon all countries to contribute to the Initiative.
The Assembly would invite the international community, including multilateral financial institutions, to implement all initiatives taken regarding debt relief for developing countries -- including Naples terms and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries' Debt Initiative -- and to continue efforts contributing to a durable solution to the debt problems of developing countries. It would encourage donors to ensure adequate financing of those mechanisms and/or initiatives, particularly in African countries and the least developed countries, and thus support their efforts to eradicate poverty.
Also, the Assembly would reaffirm the importance of agreeing on a mutual commitment between interested developed and developing country partners to allocate, on average, 20 per cent of official development assistance and 20 per cent of the national budget, respectively, to basic social programmes. The Assembly would request the Secretary-General to report to it at its fifty- third session on progress made in the implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty and would decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-third session an item entitled "Implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006)". By a draft resolution on International migration and development (document A/C.2/52/L.35) submitted by the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Hans-Peter Glanzer (Austria), on the basis of informal consultations held on draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.14, the Assembly would call upon the inter- national community to make the option of remaining in one's country viable for
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all people by ensuring a better economic balance between developed and developing countries.
It would also call upon all relevant organs, organizations and programmes of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental, regional and subregional organizations to address the issue of international migration and development and to provide appropriate support for interregional, regional and subregional processes and activities on international migration and development. It would decide to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fourth session the item entitled "International migration and develop- ment, including the question of the convening of a United Nations conference on international migration and development to address migration issues".
The Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Adel Abdellatif (Egypt), submitted a draft resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the South African Development Community (document A/C.2/52/L.36), on the basis of informal consultations held on a draft contained in document A/C.2/52/L.7. By the provisions of that text, the Assembly would call on the States Members of the United Nations system that have not yet established contact and relation- ships with the Community to explore the possibility of doing so. It would also call on the international community to consider supporting the creation of special economic zones and development corridors in the Community, especially the Maputo Development Corridor, which was already under implementation.
By the draft, the Assembly would request the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Executive Secretary of the Community, to continue to intensify contacts aimed at promoting and harmonizing cooperation between the United Nations and the Community. The Assembly would also appeal to the international community and the United Nations system to continue to extend much needed assistance to those countries of the Community that are engaged in the process of national reconstruction, to enable them to consolidate efforts to establish a democracy and enhance the implementation of national development programmes.
Action on Draft Texts
The Committee took up the draft resolution on international migration and development, including the convening of a United Nations conference on international migration and development (document A/C.2/52/L.35).
HANS-PETER GLANZER (Austria), Vice-Chairman of the Committee, introduced the draft resolution and made the following oral amendments to the draft:
-- Footnote 10 should read: "Recognizing, without prejudice, the ECOSOC review of the subsidiary bodies as initiated under General Assembly resolution 50/227, bearing in mind the other relevant General Assembly resolutions"; and
-- Operative paragraph 6(a), line 3, the phrase "bearing in mind" should be replaced by "taking into account".
The draft resolution was approved, as orally revised, without a vote.
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In light of the adoption of draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.35, draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.14 was withdrawn by its sponsors.
The Committee then took up the draft text on the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (document A/C.2/52/L.34).
Mr. GLANZER (Austria) introduced the draft resolution and made the following oral amendments:
-- Operative paragraph 8, line 1, delete the word "shall"; and
-- A new operative paragraph 9, with the subsequent paragraphs renumbered accordingly, should read: "Calls upon developed countries to reaffirm the commitments undertaken to fulfil, as soon as possible, the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for official development assistance and, where agreed, within that target, earmark 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of the gross national product for the least developed countries".
SETH WINNICK (United States) said the language read out in operative paragraph 9 was not what had been agreed. He asked the Chairman to grant a five minute recess to discuss that paragraph.
OSCAR DE ROJAS (Venezuela), the Committee Chairman, then suspended the meeting for five minutes.
Mr. WINNICK (United States) said there was some confusion regarding operative paragraph 9, as it was not included in the English text approved in the informal consultations. His Government had no particular objection to the paragraph, yet it mentioned commitments for official development assistance that the United States had not undertaken.
The CHAIRMAN said the paragraph was also missing in the Chinese and French versions of the draft, and those versions should also be revised.
The Committee then approved the draft resolution, as orally revised, without a vote.
In light of the adoption of draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.34, draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.30 was withdrawn by its sponsors.
Mr. GLANZER (Austria) then introduced the draft resolution on cultural development (document A/C.2/52/L.33) and made the following oral amendment:
-- Operative paragraph 1 should read: "Takes note of the report by the Secretary-General on progress of the World Decade for Cultural Development during the period 1994-1997".
CUI YING (China) said that in the Chinese version the fifth preambular paragraph mentions non-aligned countries. It should read "Non-Aligned Movement".
ULISES CANCHOLA (Mexico) said that in operative paragraph 2(c) in the
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second line, the phrase "sustainable human development" should be replaced by "sustainable development".
Mr. GLANZER (Austria) said the representative of Mexico was correct and a technical error had been made. The revision should be made to the draft resolution.
The Committee then approved the draft resolution, as orally revised, without a vote.
In light of the adoption of draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.33, draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.10 was withdrawn by its sponsors.
ADEL ABDELLATIF (Egypt) then introduced the draft resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the South African Development Community (document A/C.2/52/L.36) and asked that it be adopted as agreed in informal consultations.
The Committee approved the draft resolution without a vote.
In light of the adoption of draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.36, draft resolution A/C.2/52/L.7 was withdrawn by its sponsors.
The Committee then took up the draft resolution on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources (document A/C.2/52/L.6/Rev.1).
Algeria, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, and Mauritania were called as co-sponsors of the resolution.
Mr. ABDELLATIF (Egypt) introduced the draft resolution and made the following oral amendment:
-- In the second preambular paragraph, line 1, the word "people" should be replaced by "peoples".
The CHAIRMAN said that the United States had requested a recorded vote on the draft resolution.
Speaking in explanation of vote, the representative of Israel said that when Scheherezade told her stories during 1,001 nights to the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, little could she have imagined that her fantasies would be echoed in the United Nations so many years later. Yet, that was the case with the draft resolution and with so many other resolutions passed on matters concerning the Middle East.
He said Israel would vote against the resolution, because its preambular section set out to rewrite history. The future status and extent of the territories under discussion were intended to be a matter for negotiation. With regard to the Palestinians, who did not exist as an entity in 1967, that negotiation was currently under way. It was valid in international law that
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territories taken in self-defence could be retained for as long as required in order to prevent further aggression.
Regarding the lack of implementation of the Israel-Palestinian agreements, he said the timetable for implementation had been upset by the Palestinian failure to carry out their undertakings concerning terrorist activity and the guarantees of security contained in the Interim Agreement. Furthermore, including Jerusalem in the so-called "occupied" Palestinian territory was a further attempt to create facts by resolution. Jerusalem had never been the capital of an Arab State and any attempt to divide the city could only be seen as a recipe for disaster.
The draft resolution was political, he added. It was designed to serve the political ends of an observer delegation. It attempted to prejudge the outcome of negotiations to the detriment of Israel. The subject should be sent back to the General Assembly, and the Second Committee should stop serving as an unquestioning rubber stamp.
The representative of the United States said his Government was firmly opposed to the flawed resolution. It inappropriately injected the General Assembly into the direct negotiations between the parties, which were designed to resolve the very issues in question. The draft text attempted to predetermine the outcome of those talks, using one-sided and judgmental language. For that same reason, he rejected the use of the term "sovereignty", which, by its very nature, prejudged the outcome of negotiations.
The United States would continue to oppose references to "the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem", he said. The specific reference to Jerusalem was unacceptable, had no effect whatsoever on issues of sovereignty and inappropriately prejudged the permanent political arrangements in territories that could only be determined by direct negotiations. The United States would vote against the resolution and urged other delegations to do so as well.
The representative of Jordan said the representative of Israel had mistakenly said that Scheherezade had told her stories to the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, which was not the case. That mistake reflected the further inaccuracy of his statement.
The Committee then approved the draft resolution, as orally revised, by a vote of 124 in favour to 2 against (Israel and United States), with 13 abstentions. (For details of the vote, see Annex.)
Speaking after the vote, the representative of Syria said his delegation voted in favour of the draft resolution because it confirmed the international community's concern regarding the legitimate Palestinian rights to their natural resources. The draft text was particularly important because the Middle East peace process depended on relevant United Nations resolutions and the principle of land for peace. His Government had hoped that the draft resolutions could have made explicit and clear reference to Israel's responsibilities for the current difficulties in the peace process.
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The representative of Japan said the Middle East conflict could only be resolved through the ongoing peace process, which his Government would continue to support. He voted in favour of the draft resolution, but its adoption should not prejudice negotiations on the final phase of the Israel- Palestinian agreement. The Second Committee was not the appropriate place to address the problem.
The representative of Iran said he had voted in favour of the draft resolution. However, that vote should not be construed as recognition of Israel.
The representative of the (Russian Federation) said his Government supported the draft resolution, even though it contained an inappropriate reference to Security Council resolution 425 (1978) in the seventh preambular paragraph.
The representative of Luxembourg, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the Union voted in favour of the draft resolution because the natural resources of a territory should not be used in an inappropriate or illegal manner by the occupying power. Yet, questions raised in draft were part of the negotiations on permanent status and should be addressed by the parties involved. The draft should not be seen as prejudging the results of ongoing negotiations.
The representative of Libya said he had voted in favour of the draft resolution, but that vote should not be taken as a recognition of Israel.
The Observer for Palestine expressed gratitude to all those who voted in favour of the resolution. Israel, in its statement to the Committee, had once again distorted logic. Israel was the only State in the world that had no borders. It was not true, as the Israeli delegate had claimed, that the 1967 aggression was committed in self-defence. Israel was once again defying the international community by continuing to expand settlements and confiscate more territories.
(ANNEX FOLLOWS)
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Second Committee Press Release GA/EF/2803 46th Meeting (AM) 2 December 1997
ANNEX
Vote on Palestinian Natural Resources
The draft resolution on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources (document A/C.2/52/L.6/Rev.1) was approved by a recorded vote of 124 in favour to 2 against, with 13 abstentions:
In Favour: Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.
Against: Israel, United States.
Abstain: Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Federated States of Micronesia, Georgia, Latvia, Marshall Islands, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Uruguay.
Absent: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, Chad, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Fiji, Gabon, Grenada, Guatemala, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Palau, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia.
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