Right of the Palestinian people to self-determination – GA Third Cttee debate, introduction of draft resolution – Summary record (excerpts)

Third Committee

Summary record of the 39th meeting

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Tuesday, 11 November 2008, at 10 a.m.

 Chairman:   Mr. Majoor ……………………………………………………………………….. (Netherlands)

 later:  Mr. Peralta (Vice-Chairman) ……………………………………………  (Paraguay )

  later :   Mr. Majoor (Chairman)  ………………………………………………………… (Netherlands )

Contents

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Agenda item 63: Right of peoples to self-determination (continued)

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The meeting was called to order at 10.20 a.m.

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Draft resolution A/C.3/63/L.52: The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination

17.  Mr. Khane (Secretary of the Committee) said that the name of Palestine had been omitted from the list of sponsors.

18.   Mr. Attiya (Egypt), speaking on a point of order, requested that a corrigendum to the draft resolution should be issued with the name of Palestine added to the list of sponsors.

19.   The Chairman said that the Secretariat had taken due note of that request.

20.   Mr. Attiya (Egypt), speaking on behalf of the sponsors, introduced the draft resolution, which recalled the long wait of the Palestinian people for their own State. Their right to an independent State had been affirmed on numerous occasions by the United Nations as well as by the International Court of Justice in the context of its advisory opinion on the Israeli wall in the West Bank. He said that Ecuador, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Montenegro, San Marino, Slovenia and Togo had become sponsors and urged the Committee to adopt the draft resolution by consensus, thereby sending a message of solidarity to the Palestinian people as they sought to assert their inalienable right to a sovereign and viable State with East Jerusalem as its capital, living in peace and security with Israel.

21.  Mr. Khane (Secretary of the Committee) announced that the following delegations wished to join the sponsors: Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Croatia, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, the Republic of Moldova, Rwanda, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Timor-Leste.

The meeting rose at 1.30 p.m.

This record is subject to correction. Corrections should be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned within one week of the date of publication to the Chief of the Official Records Editing Section, room DC2-750, 2 United Nations Plaza, and incorporated in a copy of the record.

Corrections will be issued after the end of the session, in a separate corrigendum for each Committee.