Palestinian children – Follow-up to GA special session on children – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly
Sixty-second session

71st plenary meeting
Wednesday, 12 December 2007, 6 p.m. 
New York

  In the absence of the President, Mr. Al Bayati (Iraq), (Vice-President), took the Chair .

The meeting was called to order at 6.20 p.m.

/…

Agenda item 66 (continued)

Promotion and protection of the rights of children

 (b)   Follow-up to the outcome of the special session on children

    Report of the Secretary-General (A/62/259)

    Draft resolution (A/62/L.31)

/…

  The Acting President (spoke in Arabic ): I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Khaled Budhair, chairman of the delegation of Kuwait.

 Mr. Budhair (Kuwait) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  The State of Kuwait aspires to provide assistance in the areas of social care to sisterly and friendly countries. His Highness the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, has donated $1 million to the WHO initiative to eliminate polio. Under the special care of His Highness the Amir, Kuwait had provided special aid, in the form of clothing, footwear and other essentials, to needy children and sons of martyrs and to more than 16,000 Palestinian children in the West Bank, in an effort to put a smile on their faces. On the occasion of the upcoming holiday of Eid al-Adha, in the coming weeks Kuwait will provide thousands of food items to poor and needy Palestinians living in difficult circumstances.

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  The Acting President : I now give the floor to Mr. Majdi Ramadan, chairman of the delegation of Lebanon.

 Mr. Ramadan (Lebanon) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  Lebanon condemns the killing of children of all races, denominations and nationalities, be they Arab or Israeli, and in that respect the killing of all civilians. We look forward to the day when children in our rejoin, be they in Lebanon, Palestine or Israel, can live together in peace and security, in which they can grow, learn and, most importantly, play.

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  Ms. Al Shakae (Yemen) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  Arab children under Israeli occupation are suffering from poverty, displacement, killing, blockades and deprivation of their rights. My country condemns all Israeli practices that violate those rights and calls upon the international community to shoulder its responsibilities with a view to putting an end to that occupation, thereby enabling the Palestinian child to put down the stone and live in peace.

  The Acting President : I now call upon Mr. Adel Alakhder, chairman of the delegation of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

 Mr. Alakhder (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya): First of all, before I deliver my country’s statement, allow me to say at the outset that Libya firmly condemns the horrible terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Algeria. Libya’s leadership and peoples express and convey their sentiments and deep condolences to the victims of that horrible attack.

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  My delegation expresses its grave concern with regard to the suffering of children whose countries are under the yoke of foreign occupation. In that connection, we mention in particular the suffering of the children in the occupied Palestinian territories, who are subject to oppression, intimidation, displacement and degrading treatment by the occupation army. We also wish to highlight the suffering, and harsh and inhumane treatment of Palestinian child prisoners in Israeli jails and the violence they are subjected to.

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The meeting rose at 8.45 p.m.

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-154A. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.