Fourth Committee

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today recommended for adoption by the General Assembly a draft resolution that would urge Member States and the United Nations to implement measures identified by the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations.

The Fourth Committee today concluded its work for the session with the approval of 11 draft resolutions and one draft decision, including, for the first time, a text on special political missions, bringing to 28 the total number of drafts it sent to the General Assembly for adoption.

The optimism stemming from the latest Middle East peace initiative had become fraught with dangers that could take it “back to square one”, the Fourth Committee heard today as it concluded its consideration of 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.

Despite Israel’s lack of cooperation with the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, that body had confirmed a “number of disturbing trends”, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it began its annual consideration of the item.

Israel supported the humanitarian work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) by approving the vast majority of its requests and providing it unrestricted access to Israeli officials, its representative told the Fourth Committee today, adding, however, that the country “deeply opposes UNRWA’s political agenda”.

Palestine refugees were living proof of a conflict unresolved across generations and a contemporary symbol of the difficulties of peacemaking and the high cost of its failures, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it began its consideration of the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Through the deployment of special political missions across the world, the United Nations had diversified its crisis-response “toolbox”, and Member States now had at their disposal a wider number of mechanisms for a nimbler, more coherent response in wake of conflict, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard during consideration of the new item on its agenda.

Remarkable recent achievements in mine action demonstrated the United Nations’ ability to “deliver as one,” delegates in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as they concluded their consideration of assistance in mine action, with the approval of a draft resolution on that topic.

As peacekeeping was one of the most “visible flags” of the United Nations, it was important to conserve its legitimacy and ensure that the missions — often operating in unfamiliar and unforgiving environments — were in strict compliance with the foundational principles of its work, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it concluded its comprehensive review of peacekeeping operations in all its aspects.