Mideast situation – Sixth Cttee debate – Summary records (excerpts)

Third Committee 

Summary record of the 41st meeting

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Thursday, 15 November 2001, at 10 a.m.

 Chairman:   Mr. Al-Hinai …………………………….  (Oman) 

Contents

Agenda item 118: Right of peoples to self-determination (continued)

Agenda item 119: Human rights questions (continued)

(a)   Implementation of human rights instruments (continued)

(b)   Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms (continued )

(c)   Human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives (continued)

(d)   Comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (continued)

(e)   Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (continued )

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

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Agenda item 119: Human rights questions (continued)

 (a)   Implementation of human rights instruments (continued ) (A/C.3/56/L.36, L.37 and L.38)

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 (b)   Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms (continued ) (A/56/168, 190, 204, 207 and Add.1, 209, 212, 230, 253, 254 and Add.1, 255, 256, 258, 263, 271, 292 and Add.1, 310, 334, 341, 344 and 608)

 (c)   Human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives (continued ) (A/56/210, 217, 220, 278, 281, 312, 327, 336, 337, 340, 409 and Add.1, 440, 460, 479 and 505; A/C.3/56/4 and 7)

 (d)   Comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (continued) (A/56/36 and Add.1 and 524) 

 (e)   Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ( continued) (A/56/36 and Add.1)

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22.   Mr. Dauth (Australia), …

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30.   His delegation remained deeply concerned by the loss of life and injury resulting from the violent confrontations in the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Israel. There had been worldwide condemnation of cycles of provocation, violence and retaliation in that region, and he appealed to all parties to respect the lives and welfare of others, stop the violence and develop conditions for peaceful coexistence.

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75.  Mr. Agam (Malaysia), speaking on agenda items 119 (b) and 119 (c), said that the results of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban from 31 August to 7 September 2001, were on the whole disappointing, even though common ground had emerged on some issues, in particular the recognition that slavery was a crime against humanity and that the victims of historical injustices continued to suffer its consequences — poverty, underdevelopment and social exclusion. Like the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, his delegation believed that only by squarely confronting the past could the process of healing begin.

76.   It was regrettable that the final documents of the World Conference had not adequately stated that the policy of discrimination and exclusion pursued by the occupying Power was the cause of the suffering of the Palestinian people, even though mention was made of the foreign occupation and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of an independent State. He noted that the two World Conferences held in 1978 and 1983 had been more categorical in condemning the occupying Power.

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Rights of reply

98.  Mr. Al-Nima (Iraq), speaking in response to the statement made by the representative of the United States, said that that statement was a flagrant example of the double standards frequently highlighted as a risk by Iraq and various other countries. The countries most strongly criticized by the United States were, in fact, those which failed to share its policies, whereas countries friendly to the United States escaped criticism, despite any gross human rights violations for which they were responsible. The representative of the United States had, for example, omitted to mention the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories or Israel’s scheming against the citizens of those territories, as if the facts reported on television on a daily basis were non-existent.

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The meeting rose at 12.55 p.m.

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