General Assembly

At the conclusion of the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People today, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations called for recognition of the State of Palestine now that an ambitious programme to end the occupation in two years had been introduced.

Five experts today addressed the current socio-economic situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the urgent need to bring relief and reconstruction to the Gaza Strip, during the first plenary meeting of the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People.

The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory remained of concern, particularly in Gaza and East Jerusalem, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in a message delivered by Maxwell Gaylard, Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People opened in Vienna.

The Human Rights Committee today adopted the report, as orally amended, of its Special Rapporteur for Follow-Up on Concluding Observations, which provides a country-by-country update on correspondence with State parties on implementation of the expert body’s recommendations on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

VIENNA, 22 March -- The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People at the United Nations Office at Vienna, on 24 and 25 March 2010.

Noting that the number of complex peacekeeping operations has increased in recent years, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations encouraged, in the final report of its 2010 substantive session, which concluded early Saturday morning, the continuation and finalization of the ongoing restructuring of peacekeeping at United Nations Headquarters and indicated that it intended to follow up on the steps already taken.

Continuing a read-through of its draft “general comment” on article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which deals with the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Human Rights Committee today set language for six more paragraphs in the “first reading” draft of the 54-paragraph text.

This statement was issued today by the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the situation in occupied East Jerusalem:

The General Assembly’s Special Committee on Decolonization approved today plans to hold its 2010 Pacific Regional Seminar in Noumea, New Caledonia, from 18 to 20 May.

The United Nations expert panel monitoring worldwide implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights today continued the work of its ninety-eighth session with a read-through of its draft “general comment” on article 19 of the treaty, which deals with “the right to freedom of opinion and expression”.