Human rights situation in the OPT – CHR – SecGen report

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED

ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE

Report of the Secretary-General

1. At its fifty-second session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1996/2 entitled "Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan". In  paragraph 6 of resolution 1996/2, the Commission requested the Secretary-General to bring that resolution to the attention of all Governments, the competent United Nations organs, the specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations and to give it the widest possible publicity, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-third session.

2. In accordance with the requests of the Commission, the Secretary-General brought resolution 1996/2 to the attention of all Governments, by a note verbale dated 28 May 1996.  It was also communicated to the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories and to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

3. Furthermore, the resolution was transmitted to all the specialized agencies and to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.  In addition, the resolution was brought to the attention of competent regional intergovernmental organizations and international humanitarian organizations.

4. The Department of Public Information (DPI) undertook the following activities:

(a)  It continued to provide press coverage in English and French of all meetings of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories and to feature and distribute United Nations information materials, documents and press releases on the activities of the Special Committee to representatives of non-governmental organizations and to the public at large through the United Nations information centres and services;

(b)  In a booklet published in September 1994 in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German,  Russian and Spanish under the title The United Nations and the Question of Palestine, DPI devoted a full chapter to human rights in the occupied territories.  For the drafting of that chapter, DPI used materials available in reports of the Special Committee.  In a revised edition of the booklet to be published in 1997, DPI will again use materials available in recent reports of the Special Committee;

(c)  DPI, both at Headquarters and through the United Nations information centres and services, publicized the Special Committee's 1995 mission to the Middle East.

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