By UN General Assembly
Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the General Assembly the thirty-sixth report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 58/96.

Summary

The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories is composed of three Member States: Sri Lanka (Chairman), Malaysia and Senegal.

The present, thirty-sixth report to the General Assembly reflects the substance of information gathered during the mission of the Special Committee to Lebanon, Egypt and the Syrian Arab Republic from 25 May to 8 June 2004. In these three countries, the Special Committee met with a total of 84 witnesses representing associations of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from the occupied territories and Israeli NGOs, as well as individuals from the Syrian Arab Republic.

The report describes the visit of the Special Committee to Lebanon and provides first-hand information received from witnesses, including Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It reviews the human rights situation in the occupied territories and describes developments in relation to the human rights situation in the occupied Syrian Golan. The incidents described in the report are recounted as they were communicated to the Committee by the witnesses who appeared before it.

In its conclusions, the Special Committee urges international and national media to give the matter broader coverage in order to make the appalling human rights situation of Palestinians and other Arabs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and in the occupied Syrian Golan better known to the world. National public opinion, concerned civil society groups and diplomatic, academic and other circles should take the lead in assembling and disseminating information about the massive violations of international law and international humanitarian law perpetrated daily in the OPT that are generating unacceptable destruction of human life, infrastructure, cultivated land and economic wealth. The construction of the separation wall is causing major changes to the social fabric of Palestinian communities and is one of the most visible signs of the transformation of the OPT into a vast open-air prison.

The Special Committee is increasingly alarmed at the regional and international dimensions of the Palestinian issue and is convinced that the international community must act, especially in view of the advisory opinion rendered by the International Court of Justice and the ensuing adoption by the General Assembly of resolution ES-10/15.

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Source: UN News Centre