Situation in the OPT – CHR – SecGen report

THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND

ITS APPLICATION TO PEOPLES UNDER COLONIAL OR

ALIEN DOMINATION OR FOREIGN OCCUPATION

Situation in occupied Palestine

Report of the Secretary-General

1. At its fifty-fourth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1998/4, entitled "Situation in occupied Palestine".  In this resolution, the Commission, inter alia, called upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, and to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the other Arab territories which it has occupied since 1967 by military force, in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions.  It requested the Secretary-General to transmit the resolution to the Government of Israel and all other Governments, to distribute it on the widest possible scale and to make available to the Commission on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its fifty-fifth session, all information pertaining to the implementation of the resolution by the Government of Israel.

2. In accordance with these requests, the Secretary-General, on 15 May 1998, addressed a note verbale to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel and to all other Governments requesting information pertaining to the implementation of the resolution by the Government of Israel.

3. The Department of Public Information undertook the following activities:  

(a) The Department of Public Information continued to provide press coverage of the meetings of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.  Extensive press and audiovisual coverage was also provided for the meetings of the Commission on Human Rights. The methods used by the Department to provide this coverage included production of press releases, publications, television news packages and radio programmes, and organizing press briefings and briefings for the public;

(b) The Department continued to disseminate United Nations information materials, documents and press releases on the activities of the Special Committee and the Commission on Human Rights through the global network of United Nations information centres and services in 69 countries, the 364 depository libraries in 141 countries and electronically through the Internet. The Department also continued to make information materials available to non­governmental organizations (NGOs) through its resource centres in New York and Geneva;

(c) The Department of Public Information provided press coverage to the Special Committees field mission to Egypt, Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic from 31 July 1998.  Press releases about the activities of the Committee were issued at Headquarters and United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Cairo (Egypt), and UNDP offices in Amman (Jordan) and Damascus (Syria); UNIS/UNIC Beirut (Lebanon) assisted with media coverage during the Committees mission in that region.

4. No reply from Israel had been received at the time of preparation of the present report.

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