CEIRPP to hold first meeting – Press release

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will hold its first meeting at 10;30 a.m. on Thursday, 26 February.

The 20-nation Committee was established by the General Assembly under resolution 3376 (XXX) adopted on 10 November 1975, Subsequently, on 17 December 1975, the Assembly appointed the following States as members of the Committee:

Afghanistan, Cuba, Cyprus, German Democratic Republic, Guinea, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Pakistan. Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.

On the agenda for the opening meeting are the election of officers and the organization of the Committee's work for the year.

Under the Assembly resolution, the Committee is to consider and recommend to the Assembly a programme of implementation designed to enable the Palestinian people to exercise the rights recognized in paragraphs 1 and 2 of resolution 3236 (XXIX), adopted by the Assembly on 22 November 1974 under the heading "Question of Palestine".

"1. Reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including:

(a) The right to self-determination without external interference;

(b) The right to national independence and sovereignty;

"2. Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, id calls for their return".

The Committee is to submit its report and recommendations by 1 June, the Security Council is asked by the Assembly to consider as soon as possible thereafter "the question of the exercise by the Palestinian people of the inalienable rights recognized in paragraphs 1 and 2 of resolution 3236 (XXIX)"

In the 1975 resolution, the Assembly reaffirmed resolution 3236 (XXIX) and expressed "grave concern" that no progress had "been achieved towards the exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights "in Palestine".

The Committee, in the formulation of its recommendations for the programme of implementation, was asked to take into account "all the powers conferred by the Charter upon the-principal organs of the United Nations". It was authorized, in the fulfilment of its mandate, to establish contact with, and to receive and consider suggestions and proposals from, any State or inter­governmental regional organization and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Committee, "taking into consideration the action taken by the Security Council, is to submit a report, with observations and recommendations, to the Assembly at its thirty-first session this fall.

The Assembly resolution was adopted by a vote of 93 against, with 27 abstentions.

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