Sixty-first General Assembly

Fourth Committee

25^th Meeting (AM)

Fourth Committee decides to postpone action on outstanding

 

middle East-related texts, pending consultations

 

Delay Requested by Palestinian Observer Mission; Members to Act Next Friday

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) decided this morning to postpone action on a series of outstanding draft resolutions until Friday, 17 November, in order to conduct further consultations.

That decision followed a request by the representative of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine, supported by Finland’s delegate, as the Committee concluded its general discussion of Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

Before the Committee were 10 draft resolutions tabled this morning, 4 of them concerning the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the other 6 relating to the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

Indonesia’s representative introduced the UNRWA-related texts on assistance to Palestine refugees (document A/C.4.61/L.9); on persons displaced as a result of the June 1967, and subsequent, hostilities (document A/C.4/61/L.10); on UNRWA’s operations (document A/C.4/61/L.11), and on properties and revenues of Palestine refugees (document A/C.4/61/L.12).

Cuba’s delegate tabled the drafts relating to Israeli practices; the work of the Special Committee (document A/C.4/61/L.13); the applicability of the Geneva Convention to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories (document A/C.4/61/L.14); Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan (document A/C.4/60/L.16); Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (document A/C.4/61/L.16); and the occupied Syrian Golan (document A/C.4/61/L.17).

Committee members also received a draft resolution on Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip (document A/C.4/61/L.18).

The Committee was informed that no programme budget implications would result from the General Assembly’s adoption of the draft resolutions.

Turning to the agenda item “Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects”, Committee Chairman Madhu Raman Acharya (Nepal) said that, as for the report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (document A/60/19), the report of the Group of Legal Experts (on sexual abuse and exploitation in United Nations peacekeeping operations) would be presented to the Assembly’s sixty-first session.

The Fourth Committee will meet again on Friday, 17 November, at a time to be announced in the Journal, to take action on outstanding draft resolutions.

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For information media • not an official record