Palestine question – Cttee on Information – Report on 23rd session (excerpts)

Committee on Information

Report on the twenty-third session

(30 April-11 May 2001)

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Chapter III

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47. A number of speakers pointed to the important work being done to promote the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations (2001), and noted the Department’s efforts to depict the United Nations, in the words of one speaker, as a forum in which fruitful dialogue can flourish. Several speakers called for the Department to disseminate information on the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). Several speakers called for increased dissemination of information on the question of Palestine, and called for an enhanced role for the Committee in uncovering the facts related to the suffering of the Palestinian people and the acts of aggression perpetrated against them. One speaker mentioned that the archives of the United Nations were filled with information, reports, resolutions and recommendations related to the question of Palestine and the internationally accepted rights of the Palestinian people, and stressed the need for the Department to utilize those documents through all means to expose the oppressive policies to which the Palestinian people were being subjected. A number of speakers underscored the importance of the Department’s training programme for Palestinian journalists.  …

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49. Several speakers requested more information on the implications of the proposals contained in the report of the Secretary-General on resource requirements for the implementation of the recommendations of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations. In so doing, they questioned whether there is a risk that the Department’s role in peace missions might be weakened. One delegation noted that it agreed with the recommendations contained in the Panel’s report on enhancing planning and operational support for the public information for peacekeeping operations, and another called upon the Department to assist in the implementation of those recommendations. One speaker could not support the attempt to continue reducing the already decreased structures of the Department of Public Information, based on recommendations contained in the Panel’s report. Another delegation agreed, noting that strengthening the Peace and Security Section in the Department of Public Information would better equip it to meet the challenges of providing operational support to United Nations missions. In its view, the Department of Public Information was best placed to lend such expertise to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and similarly, the Cartographic Unit and the Media Monitoring and Analysis Unit would best be left in the Department. Some delegations made it clear that the Committee on Information was the appropriate body to consider any recommendations of the Secretary-General on the Panel’s report that might impact the Department of Public Information. On the subject of peacekeeping, one speaker said that the United Nations must send observers to the occupied territories to investigate the sufferings of the Palestinian people.

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