Assistance to the Palestinian people – SecGen report

ASSISTANCE TO THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

Report of the Secretary-General

Addendum

The following information has been received from the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on action taken by them in implementation of Economic and Social Council resolution 2100 (LXIIl).

International Labour Organization

1. In a letter dated 18 August 1977, the International Labour Office consulted the Permanent Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Geneva as to I the type of assistance which the International Labour Organisation could usefully provide to the Palestinian people. At this first consultation, vocational training for skilled workers and foremen and fellowships for social and labour studies were cited as examples of the possibilities available in the context of ILO activities.

2. So far, no reply has been received but we know from informal talks that the PLO plans to discuss this question through the observer delegation which it is sending to the next session of the International Labour Conference in June.  Once these consultations have taken place, the International Labour Office will be able to draw up specific projects which could then be discussed with UNDP and the Economic Commission for Western Asia.

United Nations  Educational,   Scientific  and Cultural Organization

1. UNESCO's  assistance to the  Palestinian people  falls  into three  categories:

UNESCO participation in the  education of the  children of Palestinian refugees

2. UNESCO's  action  in this  area dates back to 1950 when the organization began to participate  in the work  done by UNRWA on behalf of the Palestinian refugees. That co-operation became more  official  in 1952, when UNESCO  and UNRWA signed an agreement  regulating the  forms of UNESCO  action and the  conditions  in which it should take place.   Since that  time,  the organization's work on behalf of Palestinian refugees  has  consisted of:

(a) Supervision of and technical responsibility for the  education programme for Palestinian refugees  in Lebanon,  the  Syrian Arab Republic  and Jordan and in  the occupied territories  of the West  Bank of the Jordan and the  Gaza Strip.   In  1977-1978,  this programme will provide educational facilities  for over 275,000 pupils  in  577 schools,   four teacher-training colleges,   seven vocational and technical training centres  and an education institute  for in-service teacher-training.   UNESCO will  continue to provide the  services  of one  director and 19  international specialists to the UNRWA/UNESCO Department  of Education to examine prescribed text-books,  to  finance the purchase of material  and equipment to help' improve the  effectiveness of the  education provided,  to grant  scholarships  for further study to  senior local staff and a number of Palestinian  students  and,  if the  situation continues to warrant  it,  to organize  and supervise,  as  it has done in previous years,  the Egyptian secondary school-leaving certificate examinations in the  Gaza Strip;  the  cost  of these measures  for 1977-1978  is  estimated at $2,624,000.

(b) Contributing to the  operation of the UNRWA/UNESCO  Institute of Education which organizes  in-service training programmes  and courses  for Palestinian teachers.   The  Institute,  which operated initially with  a contribution  from the Swiss  Government –  replaced since  1972 by a contribution from UNDP – used to have its  headquarters  at Beirut.   Owing to the  events that  took place in Lebanon in 1975  and 1976,  the  Institute is  currently operating provisionally in Amman.  UNESCO continues to be the  executing agency for the  Institute and UNDP's  contribution to the  Institute  in 1977-1978 amounts  to  $1 million.

UNESCO  action  designed to  ensure  access by the populations  of the  occupied Arab territories to national  and education culture

3.   In resolution 10.1,  adopted at  its  seventeenth session   (Paris,  1972),  the General Conference  requested the  Director-General to  "assemble  information by all available means  at his  disposal on the national education and the  cultural life of the populations  in the  occupied Arab territories  and to  report to the  General Conference  at  its  eighteenth session".

4.   Pursuant to this  resolution  and as  a result  of contacts which the Director-General had with the Governments  of Egypt,  Jordan,  Lebanon and the  Syrian Arab Republic on the one hand,  and with the  Government  of Israel on the  other,  as well I with the League of Arab States  and the Arab Educational.,  Cultural and Scientific Organization  (ALECSO)  and a number of non-governmental international organizations which seemed able to provide information on the subject, the Director-General appointed a mission headed by Mrs.  M.  P.   Herzog,  Director of the  Human Rights co-ordination Unit, to visit the five countries in question and the occupied Arab territories in order to gather information regarding the educational institutions and cultural life in those territories.

5. The  report of the mission was  communicated to the  General  Conference at   its eighteenth session  (Paris,  1974) under the  symbol 18 C/16.

6. In resolution 13-15  adopted at its  eighteenth session, the General Conference:

Invited the Director-General to supervise the operation of educational and cultural  institutions  in the occupied Arab territories,  and to  co-operate with the Arab States concerned and with the Palestine Liberation Organization with a view to providing the populations  in the occupied Arab territories with every means of enjoying their rights to education and culture  so as to preserve their national identity;

Appealed to Israel to refrain  from any act that has the  effect of hindering the populations of the occupied Arab territories in the exercise of their rights to national education and cultural life,  and invited it to allow the Director-General of UNESCO to  carry out the task referred to in the foregoing paragraph.

7. In his report to the ninety-ninth session of the Executive  Board  (April-May 1976)   (99 EX/50 and 99 EX/50 Addendum), the Director-General:

Informed the Board about the negotiations he had undertaken with the Governments  concerned with a view to  implementing resolution 18 C/13.1,   and told the Board that  he had not  obtained from the Government  of Israel the necessary facilities to  send a mission to the occupied Arab territories to gather information on the  state of education and cultural life in those territories;

Reported on the  communications he had received from the  four Governments directly involved, namely, those of Egypt, Jordan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Israel  as well as  from certain Governments of Arab States  concerned about historic and religious monuments  in the occupied territories,  from the Palestine Liberation Organization,   from the League of Arab States  and from the Arab Educational,   Cultural and Scientific Organization.

8. The  same report was  also  submitted to the General Conference  at its nineteenth session  (Nairobi, 1976).  In resolution 19 C/15.1,  adopted at that  session, the General Conference:

Invited the Director-General to  implement  as  soon as possible his  decision to send a fact-finding mission to the Arab territories occupied by Israel;

Renewed its appeal to Israel to co-operate in normalizing the situation;

Invited the Director-General to follow and supervise the operation of educational and cultural institutions in the occupied Arab territories with a view to guaranteeing the populations of those territories their rights to education and cultural life in such a way as to preserve their national identity.

9. Israel having agreed in principle to accept the UNESCO mission, the Director-General proposed to send the mission to the occupied territories and the four countries concerned as soon as the situation in the Middle East would allow him  to do so, in order that the mission might take place in the best possible conditions.  The Director-General sent two missions, the first one to Israel and the occupied Arab territories in November 1977 and the second one to the Arab States concerned in February-March 1978.

Aid to the Palestinian people under resolutions 18 C/13-1 and 19 C/15-1 of

the General Conference of UNESCO

10. By means of funds which the Director-General was able to make available under the regular budget of UNESCO for 1975-1976 and 1977-1978, the following projects have been executed in co-operation with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO):

(a) Grant of 18 scholarships to Palestinian students and specialists ($40,000);

(b) Aid for gathering, in European countries, documentation on the Palestinians (two consultants recruited). Cost of the project:  $18,000;

(c) Collaboration between UNESCO, PLO and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in preparing a project concerning the establishment of an open university for the Palestinians.  UNESCO provided $72,000 and the Arab Fund provided $408,000 for the execution of the preliminary study; financial aid amounting to $8,000 was granted to the PLO to organize a symposium on the Open University.  The agreement between UNESCO, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Palestine Liberation Organization towards the preparation of a feasibility study for the establishment of a Palestinian open university was signed in November-December 1977;

(d) Grant to the Palestine Liberation Organization of financial aid amounting to $8,000 for the translation and publication of works relating to Palestinian literature.

Assistance to the Palestinian people under the regular programme, including the participation programme

11. The following activities have been undertaken:

(a) Allocation of seven new fellowships to Palestinian students ($39,5l0);

(b) Financial assistance towards the completion of an exhaustive bibliography relating to the history of Palestine ($15,000);

(c) Financial assistance to the General Union of Palestinian Women for the equipment and development of an orphanage ($26,000);

(d) Preparation of a meeting next September on the Palestine cultural heritage ($15,000).

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