Fourth Committee

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today heard speakers from New Caledonia call on France to stop criminalizing those fighting for freedom.

“The ocean is our ancestor,” not a resource to be exploited, elected representatives and petitioners from French Polynesia told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today.

Dialogue, political will and respect for international law must continue to guide the decolonization process, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) elected Coly Seck (Senegal) Chair on 2 June.

As the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) began its debate today on “Eradicating colonialism in all its forms and manifestations”, speakers highlighted modern-day manifestations of that phenomenon.

The General Assembly today adopted a total of 40 texts — half of them taking recorded votes — recommended by its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), addressing the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories and assistance to Palestinian refugees, among other topics.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today approved without a vote a draft resolution to advance the comprehensive review under way of peacekeeping operations by the Special Committee dedicated to peacekeeping.

Acting today on the recommendations of its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) and Sixth Committee (Legal), the General Assembly today adopted a total of 65 texts, including 49 resolutions and 16 decisions addressing a wide range of international concerns tackling, among others, the effects of atomic radiation and support for the Palestinian refugee agency, as well as the codification of two international binding treaties on crimes against humanity and the protection of persons in disasters.

Concluding its work for the current session, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved five texts today, four of which were draft resolutions concerning Israel and Palestine, which took recorded votes.

The report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices is a distortion of reality and promotes a particular political agenda aimed at “destroying Israel’s image as a democratic State,” that country’s delegate told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today, while other speakers called for a permanent end to the Israeli settler activities, in keeping with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.