CEIRPP meeting – Press release

U N I T E D   N A T I O N S

Press Section

Office of Public Information

United Nations, N.Y.

(FOR USE OF INFORMATION MEDIA — NOT AN OFFICIAL RECORD)

Committee on Rights of                                  Press Release GA/PAL/5

Palestinian People                                      1 March 1976

3rd Meeting (AM)

COMMITTEE ON PALESTINIAN RIGHTS REQUESTS SUMMARY RECORDS OF ITS MEETINGS

     The Committee on the Exercise of the  Inalienable  Rights of  the Palestinian People, discussing the organization of its work this morning, decided to request that additional facilities, including summary records, be provided for its meetings.

     The Chairman, Medoune Fall (Senegal), said he was requesting an

appointment with Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim to raise the question of

additional facilities, in the light of the Committee's discussion.

     The Committee did not set a date for its next meeting but agreed to meet again in a few days to hear the Chairman's report on his appointment with the Secretary-General and to discuss further the organization of its work. Documentation which the Committee at its last meeting requested the Secretariat to prepare is to be ready by Thursday, 4 March, in the working languages.

     The documentation to be prepared concerns the history of the Palestine problem, its genesis and development, as well as the reaction of the Palestinian people to the various resolutions and decisions of the United Nations on this question.

     In the discussion this morning on the facilities for meetings, the

Committee was informed by its Secretary, Yogaraj Yogasundram, that General

Assembly resolution 2538 (XXIV), of 11 December 1969, under the heading

"Publications and documentation of the United Nations", stated, in paragraph

10 (b), that verbatim or summary records should not be provided for newly

established subsidiary bodies of the General Assembly "unless they are

specifically authorized in the enabling resolution".

     The Secretary also informed the Committee that efforts were being made

to schedule four meetings a week for the Committee.  However, its meetings

did not appear in the calendar of conferences approved by the General Assembly

in December 1975 and, particularly during the Third United Nations Conference

on the Law of the Sea (15 March-7 May), it might be difficult to get meeting

facilities, he said.

     During the discussion which followed, members of the 20-nation body

stressed the necessity of having frequent meetings, preferably in the same room, and said the wording of General Assembly resolution 3376 (XXX), of 10 November 1975, under which the Committee was established, should cover the provision of summary records.

     The Assembly, in paragraph 6 of that resolution, requested the Secretary-

General "to provide the Committee with all the necessary facilities for the

performance of its tasks".

     Summing up the discussion, the Chairman said that when he met with the

Secretary-General he would state that, in the view of the Committee, all the

necessary arrangements should have been made to assist the Committee in its

work.  Members of the Committee felt, he would say, that a record of their

meetings was needed and that, in their view, the 1975 Assembly resolution

amply covered the provision of summary records.

     If summary records were not provided, because of the restriction in the

1969 resolution, it might be necessary to request a special session of the

General Assembly to correct the omission, he said.

     He would also state to the Secretary-General that members of the Committee were "surprised" to see that this important Committee was not listed in the calendar of conferences.

     In his remarks on this subject, the Chairman said he shared the

impression voiced by some Committee members during the discussion that there

were "forces rightly or wrongly trying to make things difficult for the

Committee in its work".

     He said he would ask how the Secretary-General viewed the work of the

Committee.

     During the latter part of the meeting, which was held informally, the

Committee discussed the drawing up of a work programme, and agreed that the

representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) should be the

first speaker in the general debate.

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