Letter and Progress report of the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (A/ES-10/1035)

02 June 2025

Tenth emergency special session

Agenda item 5

Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Letter dated 30 May 2025 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the General Assembly

In accordance with paragraph 6 (h) of General Assembly resolution ES-10/17, adopted on 15 December 2006, I have the honour to transmit herewith the progress report, dated 16 May 2025, from the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (see annex).

I would be grateful if you could bring the present letter and its annex to the attention of the members of the General Assembly.

(Signed) António Guterres

Annex

Letter dated 16 May 2025 from the members of the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory addressed to the Secretary-General

We have the honour to provide the progress report of the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for transmission to the General Assembly in accordance with paragraph 6 (h) of Assembly resolution ES-10/17 (see enclosure).

We request that the progress report be issued as a document of the General Assembly. Our 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024 progress reports were issued as documents A/ES-10/455, A/ES-10/498, A/ES-10/522, A/ES-10/598, A/ES-10/599, A/ES-10/658, A/ES-10/683, A/ES-10/730, A/ES-10/756, A/ES-10/801, A/ES-10/821, A/ES-10/839, A/ES-10/949 and A/ES-10/1004, respectively.

(Signed) Vladimir Goryayev

Member of the Board

(Signed) Mariana Salazar Albornoz

Member of the Board

(Signed) Jeremy K. Sharpe

Member of the Board

Enclosure

Progress report of the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

1. The Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory provides the present progress report in accordance with paragraph 6 (h) of General Assembly resolution ES-10/17, covering the period from 1 June 2024 to 16 May 2025. The 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024 progress reports of the Board are contained in documents A/ES-10/455, A/ES-10/498, A/ES-10/522, A/ES-10/598, A/ES-10/599, A/ES-10/658, A/ES-10/683, A/ES-10/730, A/ES-10/756, A/ES-10/801, A/ES-10/821, A/ES-10/839, A/ES-10/949 and A/ES-10/1004, respectively. Board progress reports, as well as other basic documents pertinent to the work of the Register of Damage, are posted on the Register’s website (www.unrod.org).
2. In accordance with the provisions of General Assembly resolution ES-10/17 and the Register’s Rules and Regulations Governing the Registration of Claims, the Office of the Register of Damage is required to undertake outreach and claim intake activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, securely deliver claim forms and supporting documents to the Register’s office in Vienna and undertake translation and legal processing of the claims for consideration by the Board. The Board then reviews those claims and takes a decision, which is final, on which claims should be included in the Register of Damage on the basis of the established objective criteria defined in the Rules and Regulations.
3. During the reporting period, the Office of the Register of Damage continued to undertake outreach activities and collect claims in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to process them for review by the Board. Since its launch in 2008, the Office’s community outreach and claim intake campaign has been conducted in all nine affected governorates: Janin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, Salfit, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which comprise a population of more than 1.3 million inhabitants. During the reporting period, outreach activities were conducted for 40 public entities from Janin, Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, Salfit, Ramallah and Hebron Governorates, including ministries, municipalities and local public authorities, through in-person meetings, telephone calls and videoconferences.
4. Despite the deteriorated security situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Office of the Register of Damage continued claims collection and related work in accessible areas.
5. As at 16 May 2025, a total of 74,200 claims had been collected in 269 affected communities where the construction of the wall either had been completed or was ongoing. During the reporting period, 415 claims were collected on the ground by the team of the Register of Damage, including 12 category F claims from: the city of Qalqilyah, Qalqilyah Governorate; the Ti‘innik and Arabbunah communities of Janin Governorate; the Ni‘lin community of Ramallah Governorate; the city of Salfit, Salfit Governorate; the Zayta community of Tulkarm Governorate; and the Sikkah, Tawas, Dayr al-Asal-al-Tahta, Imnizil, Hittah and Ar Ramadin communities of Hebron Governorate. In addition, more than 100 claims from several locations were rectified.
6. The Office of the Register of Damage ordinarily conducts one or two training sessions a year for local mayors and other officials of affected communities to inform them about requirements for completing claim forms and preparing them for claim intake in their communities. In view of the ongoing security situation and lack of funding, the Office of the Register of Damage shifted in 2022 from in-person training sessions, which had been the practice before the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, to virtual and hybrid training sessions. During the reporting period, two capacity-building workshops were conducted, both of which were focused on the legal and organizational aspects of claim intake for category F (public resources and other) losses. The first workshop, held over two days in July 2024, was attended by 22 mayors and local council officials from Janin, Jerusalem, Qalqilyah, Ramallah, Salfit and Tulkarm Governorates, as well as directors of local government departments and representatives from Al-Quds University. The second workshop, held on 13 May 2025, involved 15 officials from public entities from all nine affected governorates.
7. During the reporting period, the Office of the Register of Damage processed 2,229 claims. Technical adjustments were made to 6,546 claims in view of further development of the eligibility criteria. The gap between the number of claims collected and the number processed by the Office has therefore been narrowed, although there is still a substantial backlog of 26,333 unprocessed claims. The Board has requested the Office to develop specific and practical proposals for dramatically expediting claims processing, including through the use of new technologies, while ensuring the quality of the process and the integrity of the Register.
8. From the inception of the Register of Damage to the time of writing, the Board had decided to include in the Register the losses set out in 46,262 claims and not to include those set out in 1,593 claims that did not meet the eligibility criteria, bringing the total number of decided claims to 47,855.
9. During the reporting period, the members of the Board held four meetings in Vienna and reviewed and decided on a total of 3,225 claims that had been processed by the Office, comprising: (a) 505 claims at its meeting held from 4 to 8 November 2024; (b) 1,097 claims at its meeting held from 11 to 15 November 2024; (c) 679 claims at its meeting held from 24 to 28 February 2025; and (d) 944 claims at its meeting held from 12 to 16 May 2025. In total, during the reporting period, the Board decided to include in the Register 3,073 claims and not to include 152 claims that did not meet the eligibility criteria set out in the Rules and Regulations.
10. Of the claims reviewed and decided by the Board during the reporting period, 2,801 contained claims for category A (agriculture) losses; 210 for category B (commercial) losses; 210 for category D (employment) losses; 9 for category E (access to services) losses; and 1 for category F (public resources and other) losses.
11. In its review of claims, the Board continued to apply the eligibility criteria in accordance with article 11 of the Rules and Regulations. In view of the limited time available and the large number of claims, the Board continued to employ sampling techniques, as provided for in article 12 (3) of the Rules and Regulations. During the four meetings covered by the present report, Board members reviewed in detail approximately 10 per cent of the claims submitted for review. This level of sampling is within the statistical parameters of reliability determined by the statistician previously consulted by the Executive Director of the Office of the Register of Damage, as indicated in the Board report of 2012. Claims that did not meet the eligibility criteria were either excluded from the Register or returned to the claimants for clarification.
12. In its review of claims during the reporting period, the Board developed and adjusted the eligibility criteria for claims, as needed and in accordance with its mandate. These decisions concerned losses in relation to the creation of an alternate road to compensate for the loss of a road no longer usable due to the construction of the wall, overlapping employment claims, consideration of average annual income in commercial claims, and recalculation of shares, among others.
13. Claim intake and outreach activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are funded by extrabudgetary contributions. More than $9.01 million has been donated since the establishment of the Office of the Register of Damage. Such voluntary contributions have been received from the Governments of Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Finland, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands (Kingdom of the), Norway, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Türkiye, as well as the European Commission, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. Some of these donors have donated to the Register of Damage on several occasions. During the reporting period, the Office of the Register of Damage received voluntary contributions from the Governments of Türkiye and Malta amounting to $115,512. The Board would like to express its deep appreciation to those donors for providing funding and political support to enable the implementation of the provisions of resolution ES-10/17.
14. Regrettably, the extrabudgetary funds are almost depleted, which jeopardizes the fundamentally important activities of the Office of the Register of Damage on the ground. The Board appeals once again to previous and potential donors to urgently provide funding to the Office to ensure uninterrupted outreach and claim intake activities in order to finalize its mandated work.
15. During the reporting period, the Executive Director of the Office of the Register of Damage continued to maintain constructive contacts with relevant Palestinian officials. As before, the Board would like to express its appreciation for the indispensable cooperation extended by the Palestinian National Committee for the Register of Damage and for the support provided by local governors, mayors and members of village councils on many practical aspects, without which outreach and claim intake activities could not be conducted successfully.
16. During the reporting period, the Executive Director of the Office of the Register of Damage also continued to maintain constructive contacts with relevant Israeli representatives. The Office did not experience any problems with access or the delivery of needed materials.
17. The Board of the Register of Damage notes with satisfaction the good cooperation with United Nations agencies and offices present on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as called for in paragraph 14 of resolution ES-10/17. The Board particularly appreciates the efficient and tangible contribution provided by the United Nations Office for Project Services in the areas of logistics, procurement, and human and financial resources management in support of the Register of Damage. During the reporting period, the Register of Damage also continued to benefit from the advice and assistance of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, including its Under-Secretary-General and the Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.
18. The Board expresses its appreciation to the Executive Director and the staff of the Office of the Register of Damage for their efficient support in the preparation of the four Board meetings held during the reporting period, which enabled the Board to perform its functions smoothly.
19. The Board of the Register of Damage will continue to provide periodic reports.