Governments asked to make 'most generous efforts' to meet needs of Palestinian refugee agency.

Governments asked to make 'most generous efforts' to meet needs of Palestinian refugee agency

The Special Political Committee on 15 November adopted 11 resolutions related to the situation of Palestine refugees, including a text asking the General Assembly to urgently appeal to all Governments to make "most generous efforts" to meet the anticipated needs" of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Other proposed resolutions related to guaranteeing the legal and human rights of the refugees, their resettlement and housing, compensation for lost property, education, restoring the general ration, and financing of the Agency.

A financial report on UNRWA (A/40/13/Add. 1) said the Agency would need $157.4 million in cash for education, health and relief services in 1986. Estimated cash income for 1985 was $150.4 million, including special contributions of $13 million. Regular contributions for 1985 totalled only $137 million in cash, the lowest level in more than four years.

The draft urging generous contributions to UNRWA was approved by a recorded vote of 123 in favour to none against, with 1 abstention (Israel). By it, the Assembly would also direct attention to the continuing seriousness of UNRWA's financial position; note with "deep regret" that repatriation or compensation of refugees had not been effected, and that their situation continued to be a matter of serious concern; and reiterate its request that UNRWA headquarters should be relocated to its former site in Beirut as soon as practicable. Agency headquarters are now located in Vienna and Amman.

By the remaining drafts, the Special Political Committee recommended that the Assembly:

* Urge the Secretary-General, in consultation with UNRWA, to undertake effective measures to guarantee the safety and security and the legal and human rights of the Palestine refugees in all the territories under Israeli occupation in 1967 and thereafter. The Assembly would also hold Israel responsible for the security of the Palestine refugees in occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and call upon it to fulfill its obligations as the occupying Power in that regard, in accordance with the pertinent provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

It would call on Israel to release forthwith all detained Palestine refugees, including UNRWA employees, and to compensate UNRWA for the damage to its property and facilities resulting from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It would urge the UNRWA Commissioner-General to provide housing, in consultation with the Government of Lebanon, to Palestine refugees whose homes had been demolished or razed by the Israeli forces (96 to 2 (Israel, United States), with 28 abstentions).

By a vote of 91 to 17, with 18 abstentions, the Committee approved separately the inclusion of a preambular paragraph by which the Assembly would express its deep concern at "the lack of security for the Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, resulting in scores of violent deaths, woundings, kidnappings, disappearances, evictions in the face of threats...