Situation in occupied Palestine.

1991/6. Situation in occupied Palestine

The Commission on Human Rights, Recalling General Assembly resolutions 181 A and B (II) of 29 November 1947 and 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, as well as all other resolutions which confirm and define the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination without external interference and to the establishment of their independent State on their national soil, especially resolution 37/86 E of 20 December 1982, Recalling Economic and Social Council resolutions 1865 (LVI) and 1866 (LVI) of 17 May 1974, Reaffirming its previous resolutions in this regard, Bearing in mind the reports and recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant United Nations resolutions, Expressing its grave concern at the persistence of Israel in preventing by force the Palestinian people from enjoying their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination, in defiance of the principles of international law, United Nations resolutions and the will of the international community, which has affirmed those rights in its different resolutions, Recalling that military aggression by the forces of any State against the territory of another State constitutes an offence against the peace and security of mankind, Expressing its grave concern that no just solution has been achieved to the problem of Palestine, which constitutes the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Reiterating its grave concern at the military, economic and political support given by some States to Israel, which encourages and supports Israel in its aggressive and expansionist policies and its continued occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories,

1. Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation of Palestine constitutes a gross violation of human rights and an offence against the peace and security of mankind;

2. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination without external interference and to the establishment of their independent sovereign State on their national soil in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions adopted by the General Assembly since 1947;

3. Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 194 (III) and subsequent relevant resolutions;

4. Reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to recover their rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant United Nations resolutions, and affirms that the intifada of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation since 8 December 1987 is a form of legitimate resistance against the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and an expression of the Palestinian people's rejection of the occupation and an affirmation of their unshakeable desire for liberation and for the exercise of their inalienable national rights on their national soil;

5. Reaffirms its support for the call to convene an effective international peace conference on the Middle East, with the participation of the permanent members of the Security Council and the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, under the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and to guarantee the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to self-determination;

6. Strongly condemns Israel for its continued occupation of the Palestinian territory, which constitutes the main obstacle to the exercise by the Palestinian people of their national rights, foremost of which is their right to free self-determination on their national soil;

7. Calls upon Israel to comply with its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and to withdraw from the Palestinian and other Arab territories which it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions;

8. Urges all States, United Nations organs, the specialized agencies and other international organizations to extend their support and assistance to the Palestinian people through their representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in their struggle to recover their rights and to liberate their land from Israeli occupation, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant United Nations resolutions;

9. Requests the Secretary-General to make available to the Commission on Human Rights, prior to the convening of its forty-eighth session, all information pertaining to the implementation of the present resolution;

10. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the Government of Israel with a view to its implementation, and to report to the Commission at its forty-eighth session on the extent of achieving that aim;

11. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-eighth session, as a matter of high priority, the item "The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation" and to consider the situation in occupied Palestine under that item.

28th meeting
15 February 1991
[Adopted by 29 votes to 1, with
12 abstentions. See chap. IX.]