Israeli practices – SecGen report (GA res. 48/41A)

General Assembly

Forty-ninth session

Agenda item 78

         REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE ISRAELI PRACTICES

         AFFECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE AND OTHER

ARABS OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Report of the Secretary-General

(in pursuance of General Assembly resolution 48/41 A)

1. The present report is submitted in pursuance of General Assembly resolution 48/41 A of 10 December 1993.  Paragraph 8 of the resolution reads as follows:

"The General Assembly,

"…

"8. Requests the Secretary-General:

"(a)  To provide all necessary facilities to the Special Committee, including those required for its visits to the occupied territories, so that it may investigate the Israeli policies and practices referred to in the present resolution;

"(b)  To continue to make available such additional staff as may be necessary to assist the Special Committee in the performance of its tasks;

"(c)  To circulate regularly to Member States the periodic reports mentioned in paragraph 6 above;

"(d)  To ensure the widest circulation of the reports of the Special Committee and of information regarding its activities and findings, by all means available, through the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat and, where necessary, to reprint those reports of the Special Committee that are no longer available;

"(e)  To report to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session on the tasks entrusted to him in the present resolution".

2. All necessary facilities were provided to the Special Committee. Arrangements were made for it to meet in January, April-May and August 1994. Furthermore, the Special Committee carried out a field mission to Egypt, Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic in April-May 1994.  Two periodic reports and the twenty-sixth annual report of the Special Committee were circulated to Member States (A/49/67, dated 4 February 1994, A/49/172, dated 7 June 1994, and A/49/511, dated 18 October 1994, respectively).

3. In paragraph 8 (d) of its resolution 48/41 A, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to ensure the widest circulation of the reports of the Special Committee and of information regarding its activities and findings, by all means available, through the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat and, where necessary, to reprint those reports of the Special Committee which are no longer available.

4. Pursuant to paragraph 8 (d) of resolution 48/41 A, the Department of Public Information undertook the following activities:

(a) The Department of Public Information continued to provide press coverage of all meetings of the Special Committee 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 revised edition of a booklet to be published in September 1994, in English, under the title The United Nations and the Question of Palestine, and at a later date in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Russian and Spanish, the Department devoted a full chapter to human rights in the occupied territories. For the drafting of that chapter, the Department used extensively material available in reports of the Special Committee, including most recent ones;

(c) The Department of Public Information, both at Headquarters and through the United Nations information centres and services, publicized the Special Committee's 1994 mission to the Middle East.

5. It should also be noted that, on 19 May 1994, the Secretary-General addressed a note verbale to all States drawing attention to resolutions 48/41 A to D.

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