Thursday’s debate at the General Assembly’s Third Committee touched on the plight of rural women and refugees, self-determination, and racism. A report by António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, noted with concern that “after several years of steady decrease, the number of refugees worldwide rose to nearly 10 million [people].”
Discussing self-determination, Syria said that the creation of Israel was a “caesarean birth.” Pakistan rebuked India regarding the disputed Kashmir region, saying that “no one should offer lessons in human rights to Pakistan.”
In other business, draft resolutions were introduced on the death penalty, the promotion of human rights, internally displaced persons, and the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance.
UN Watch highlights follow below.
- Egypt and Pakistan defended the right to “resist occupation,” with the Egyptian representative saying that “the right to resist occupation was no less sacred than the right to self-defense, particularly in the face of those who sought to impose illegal situations on the ground,” citing the case of the Palestinian territories.
- Pakistan reiterated its “commitment to eliminating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, but a legitimate struggle for self-determination could not be considered terrorism.”
- The Palestinian observer accused Israel of creating an “institutional system of colonization, racial discrimination and apartheid.” The Palestinian observer also accused Israel’s government of “racist ideology.”
- Israel rejected the Palestinian allegations and noted that the Jewish state is a signatory to the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Israeli representative also raised the issue of rising anti-Semitism, noting that there had been 590 cases of “deliberate violence and vandalism against Jews, an increase of 31 per cent from the previous year.”
- Syria noted that “international security was threatened by racial hatred,” in particular the targeting of “Arabs and Muslims in the context of a war on terrorism.” On the subject of Israel, Syria stated that “the United Nations had supervised the caesarean birth of Israel, but it had failed to nurture it.”
- Pakistan and India rejected each others’ statements regarding the disputed region of Kashmir. Pakistan said that “no one should offer lessons in human rights to Pakistan.”
- Algeria and Morocco also traded accusations over the fate of Western Sahara. Algeria accused Morocco of denying “its commitments” while Morocco stated that it “did not fear” Algeria.
- Sudan rejected allegations by Portugal on behalf of the EU regarding the situation in Darfur. Sudan “was involved in ongoing efforts to facilitate humanitarian access” across its country.
- Iran blamed a “rejection of cultural diversity” for the rise in Islamophobia.
