Summary
The General Assembly’s resolution of 19 December 1968, guided by the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and bearing in mind the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, recalling the chain of United Nations calls on Israel to facilitate the return of inhabitants who fled since the outbreak of hostilities and the Commission on Human Rights telegram of 8 March 1968 on destroying homes, and noting the International Conference on Human Rights resolution I of 7 May 1968 affirming the inalienable rights of inhabitants who left their homes to return home, recover their property and rejoin their families — deciding to establish a Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, composed of three Member States, to be appointed by the Assembly’s President, with Israel requested to receive and co-operate with it and the Committee to report to the Secretary-General (Resolution 2443 (XXIII): Respect for and implementation of human rights in occupied territories (19 December 1968), PDF p.1).
What the file is
The resolution as printed in the General Assembly’s Official Records, twenty-third session, printed p.50. 1 PDF page, about 963 words in the text copy for the resolution and its footnotes. The page also carries the tail of the preceding resolution (paragraphs 9-11, on the International Conference on Human Rights recommendations, 1748th plenary meeting) before Resolution 2443 and the opening of Resolution 2444 (XXIII) on human rights in armed conflicts after it; neither is part of Resolution 2443. The text copy’s OCR is heavily garbled (“Reepect” for Respect, “XXID” in the heading for XXIII); the operative wording was checked against the original, which carries the same OCR layer. Footnotes 30-34 give the Geneva Convention’s Treaty Series citation (vol. 75 (1950), No. 973, and Nos. 970-973 for the Conventions collectively) and the sources of the Commission on Human Rights and Tehran conference materials.
Section by section
- Preceding tail (PDF p.1). Paragraphs 9-11 of the preceding resolution, inviting action on the International Conference on Human Rights’ resolutions and recommendations and a Secretary-General’s report to the twenty-fourth session, adopted at the same 1748th plenary meeting, 19 December 1968. Not part of Resolution 2443.
- Preamble, guiding instruments (PDF p.1). Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; bearing in mind the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949.
- Preamble, return (PDF p.1). Mindful of the Universal Declaration principle of the right of everyone to return to his own country, and recalling Security Council resolution 237 (1967) of 14 June 1967, General Assembly resolutions 2252 (ES-V) of 4 July 1967 and 2341 B (XXII) of 19 December 1967, Commission on Human Rights resolution 6 (XXIV) of 27 February 1968 and Economic and Social Council resolution 1336 (XLIV) of 31 May 1968, in which those United Nations organs called upon the Government of Israel, inter alia, “to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who have fled the area of military operations since the outbreak of hostilities”.
- Preamble, homes and Resolution 259 (PDF p.1). The Commission on Human Rights telegram of 8 March 1968 calling on Israel to desist forthwith from destroying homes of the Arab civilian population in areas occupied by Israel; and Security Council resolution 259 (1968) of 27 September 1968, expressing concern for the safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of the Arab territories under Israeli military occupation and deploring the delay in implementing resolution 237 (1967).
- Preamble, Tehran resolution I (PDF p.1). Resolution I of the International Conference on Human Rights, 7 May 1968, which expressed grave concern at violations in Arab territories occupied by Israel, drew Israel’s attention to the grave consequences of disregarding fundamental freedoms and human rights, called on Israel to desist from destroying homes and to respect the Universal Declaration and the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 in occupied territories, and affirmed the inalienable rights of all inhabitants who have left their homes as a result of the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East to return home, resume their normal life, recover their property and homes, and rejoin their families according to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Operative paragraphs 1-5 (PDF p.1). “Decides to establish a Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, composed of three Member States”; the Assembly’s President is requested to appoint its members; the Government of Israel is requested to receive the Committee, co-operate with it and facilitate its work; the Committee is requested to report to the Secretary-General as soon as possible and whenever the need arises thereafter; the Secretary-General is requested to provide it all necessary facilities. “1748th plenary meeting, 19 December 1968.” No vote figures are given.
- Following opening (PDF p.1). Resolution 2444 (XXIII), Respect for human rights in armed conflicts, affirming the Vienna Red Cross principles (means of injuring the enemy not unlimited, no attacks on civilian populations as such, distinction between combatants and civilians) and inviting a study of better application of humanitarian conventions, cut off at its paragraph 2(a). Not part of Resolution 2443.
Key passages
- “Decides to establish a Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, composed of three Member States” (operative paragraph 1, PDF p.1).
- “to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who have fled the area of military operations since the outbreak of hostilities” (preamble, reporting the recalled resolutions, PDF p.1).
Evidence the work relies on
A General Assembly resolution, not an evidentiary work. It relies on the instruments it recalls — Security Council resolutions 237 (1967) and 259 (1968), General Assembly resolutions 2252 (ES-V) and 2341 B (XXII), Commission on Human Rights resolution 6 (XXIV) and its telegram of 8 March 1968, Economic and Social Council resolution 1336 (XLIV), and the International Conference on Human Rights resolution I of 7 May 1968 — none reproduced beyond the summary of Tehran resolution I in the preamble. It makes no findings of its own about particular practices; its operative act is to create the investigating committee.
Analysis
The resolution’s work is institutional: after a preamble assembling the return and homes-destruction calls of 1967-1968, it creates a standing three-State committee with a reporting line to the Secretary-General and a request, not a direction, that Israel receive it. Its limits are in the text: the occupied territories are not named or bounded, the three Member States are left to the President’s appointment, no deadline is set beyond “as soon as possible”, and no vote figures are given in the file.
People, organizations, places and events
Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, UN General Assembly Resolution 2443, Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the establishing text for the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, whose later history the wiki already holds from other sources: Part III of the United Nations study (the Committee reporting regularly, Israel refusing co-operation and access, its 1982 conclusions), Part IV and Part V (its 1984-2000 findings), and the 1978 right-of-return study, which records this resolution and gives a vote of 60 in favour, 22 against, 30 abstentions that this file itself does not give — both accounts are held, the study’s figures attributed to it on the Committee’s page. Its preamble’s return chain (resolutions 237, 2252, 2341 B) concerns the inhabitants displaced in 1967, distinct from Resolution 194 (III): Palestine — Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator paragraph 11’s 1948 refugees, and its Geneva Convention framing connects it to Fourth Geneva Convention.
Open questions
- The file gives no vote figures for Resolution 2443; the 1978 study’s figures (60-22-30) are recorded on the Committee’s page as that study’s account.
- The three Member States appointed to the Committee are not named in the resolution.
- The occupied territories whose population the Committee is to investigate are not named or bounded in the text.
- Resolution 2444 (XXIII), opening on the same page, is cut off at paragraph 2(a) in this file and is not ingested here.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full.