Right of peoples to self-determination – Third Cttee debate – Press release (excerpts)

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Third Committee

27^th and 28^th Meetings (AM & PM)

UN MUST ENSURE SUCCESSFUL SELF-DETERMINATION PROCESS FOR TERRITORIES

FACING REMNANTS OF COLONIALISM, THIRD COMMITTEE TOLD

Draft Resolutions Introduced on Girl Child, Indigenous People

Background

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met today to continue its joint consideration of elimination of racial discrimination and the right of peoples to self-determination.  (For background, see Press Release GA/SHC/3705 of 23 October.)

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Statements

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NADYA RASHEED, Observer for Palestine, said the practices of racism and related intolerance continued to deny individuals their rights.  Discrimination also remained a barrier to the right of some peoples to live in a free and unprejudiced world.  Even though the documents adopted at Durban were, in her delegation’s opinion, less than perfect, they nevertheless represented an important achievement and provided a foundation to build upon.  For far too long, the Palestinian people had continued to be the victims of racism, racial discrimination and intolerance.  In the occupied Palestinian territories, approximately half of the Palestinian people -– some 3.5 million people –- had lived under brutal and oppressive occupation for decades.

Let it be stressed, she continued, that foreign occupation was clearly the antithesis of all the principles and norms of equality, democracy and tolerance.  Many of the systematic oppressive Israeli measures could not have continued or escalated without the racist attitudes of the State as an occupying Power.  Those measures had taken the form of State terrorism, war crimes and systematic human rights violations.  Inflicting maximum and unremitting pain and suffering on the Palestinian people had been official policy, and causing the virtual collapse of the socio-economic conditions within the territories had been the goal so that the Palestinian people would be driven to kneel to the occupying Power.  Her delegation hoped that the international community would exert every effort to relieve the Palestinian people of that hardship and anguish of racism and racial discrimination.

BISHER H. AL-KHASAWNEH (Jordan) believed that the right of peoples to self-determination ought not, in any way, compromise or endanger the territorial integrity and political unity of independent States.  Such territorial integrity and political unity must always be preserved and respected.  This, however, did not apply, in any way, to peoples, land or territory under belligerent foreign occupation.  Against this clear and un-blurred distinction, Jordan emphasized the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to freely determine their political status in the entirety of the occupied West Bank and Gaza, including the right to establish an independent Palestinian State therein, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In this context, he urged Israel to end, without delay, its occupation of Palestinian cities and siege of Palestinians and Palestinian cities that it had re-occupied and that it withdraw its forces to their positions of before   28 September 2000.  Only a withdrawal would allow constructive and conducive conditions to be regenerated enabling the resumption of the peace process.  The aim must be to reach a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East region — based on the Madrid terms of reference — and to guarantee a better, safer and more prosperous life for Arabs and Israelis alike.

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LUIS ALBERTO AMORÓS NÚÑEZ (Cuba) said self-determination and equal sovereignty of all States were unshakable pillars of international law.  That principle had been based upon the struggle of peoples living under colonialism or foreign occupation.  In that regard, Cuba was profoundly concerned by the prolonged and illegal occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel.  Cuba hoped that, sooner rather than later, the international community would see a free Palestinian State with free people living free of cruel domination.  He said that threats on various fronts to developing countries in an increasingly uni-polar international environment also hindered the exercise of the right to self-determination.  It was crucial for the international community to recognize the rights of people and individuals, as well as the right of States to territorial integrity.  All countries of the world could not exist as “cookie cutter” replicas of one way of life or political idea. …

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BONANZA P. TAIHITU (Indonesia) …

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Concerning the issue of self-determination, he said the long suffering of the Palestinian People, which was in no small way attributable to racism, must be brought to an end.  Indonesia believed that a settlement to this conflict required the full withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab land, respect for the right of all States in the region to live within secure and internationally recognized boundaries, and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the establishment of a Palestinian State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

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