General Assembly

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine addressed the complex question of Jerusalem this morning, with experts warning that unless the issue was addressed immediately, a two-State solution would be impossible.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine came to a close today with a statement in strong support of the two-State solution: Israel and Palestinian, living side by side in peace and security.

As the Special Committee on Decolonization took up the question of Gibraltar this morning, the representative of Spain opposed any attempt to remove it from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories undergoing decolonization, and reiterated the Spanish Government’s wish to renew “conversations” with the United Kingdom on the future of Gibraltar.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine this afternoon heard presentations of four experts, including Israeli and Palestinian, on the theme “International efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine”.

Acting by consensus as it began its resumed 2009 session this morning, the Special Committee on Decolonization approved three draft resolutions, on dissemination of decolonization information; the question of sending visiting and special missions to Non-Self-Governing Territories; and on information from those Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the United Nations Charter.

“Our shared challenge is to begin implementing transformative changes on the ground and to create irreversible momentum towards an Israeli-Palestinian agreement,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in a statement at the opening of the United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine.

The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 8 and 9 June 2009 at the Hotel Borobudur in Jakarta. The theme of the Meeting is “Strengthening international consensus on the urgency of achieving a two-State solution”. It will be followed, on 10 June 2009, by the United Nations Public Forum in Support of the Palestinian People.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today expressed its utmost concern about “illegal and provocative Israeli policies” and measures in Occupied East Jerusalem, including destruction of Palestinian homes and imposition of restrictions on movement, and reiterated that Israel must refrain from any activities that changed the legal, demographic and cultural character, and status of the area, “the capital of a future Palestinian State”.

Concluding its annual two-week session this afternoon, the Committee on Information called on the United Nations Department of Public Information to continue to strengthen its role as the indispensable voice of the Organization by boosting awareness of a raft of current issues, increasing multilingualism, re‑evaluating all programmes and enhancing efficiency.

During the second day of its work in Saint Kitts and Nevis today, the Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2001-2010) took up the challenges and opportunities in the process of decolonization in the Non-Self-Governing Territories outside the Caribbean, and considered the role of the United Nations system in providing them with development assistance.