Summary
The General Assembly’s resolution of 22 November 1974, adopted after hearing the statement of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people, which reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including self-determination without external interference and national independence and sovereignty, reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted and calls for their return, emphasizes that full respect for and realization of those rights are indispensable for the solution of the question of Palestine, recognizes the Palestinian people as a principal party in establishing a just and lasting peace and its right to regain its rights by all means in accordance with the Charter, and requests the Secretary-General to establish contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization on all matters concerning the question of Palestine (Resolution 3236 (XXIX): Question of Palestine (22 November 1974), PDF p.1).
What the file is
The resolution as printed in the General Assembly’s Official Records, twenty-ninth session, printed p.4. 1 PDF page, about 804 words in the text copy counting the whole page. The page carries, interleaved in two columns in the text copy, the tail of an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution (2277th plenary meeting, 5 November 1974), then Resolution 3236 in full, then Resolution 3237 (XXIX) in full; the section by section entry reassembles Resolution 3236 in printed order, with its paragraph 4 recovered from the interleave. The same printed page, in a second copy, is also the file for Resolution 3237 in this batch; the two text copies differ only in OCR noise. The text copy’s OCR here is heavily garbled (“Anembly”, “conrerned”, “Reaflirms”); the operative wording was checked against the original’s printed page, which reads the passages cleanly.
Section by section
- Preceding tail (PDF p.1). Paragraphs of an IAEA resolution on peaceful nuclear explosions and Non-Proliferation Treaty ratification, 2277th plenary meeting, 5 November 1974. Not part of Resolution 3236.
- Preamble (PDF p.1). Having considered the question of Palestine; having heard the statement of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people (footnote 14: Plenary Meetings, 2282nd meeting, paras. 3-83), and other statements in the debate; deeply concerned that no just solution to the problem of Palestine has yet been achieved and recognizing that the problem continues to endanger international peace and security; recognizing that the Palestinian people is entitled to self-determination in accordance with the Charter; expressing grave concern that the Palestinian people has been prevented from enjoying its inalienable rights, in particular its right to self-determination; guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter; recalling its relevant resolutions affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
- Operative paragraph 1 (PDF p.1). Reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including (a) the right to self-determination without external interference and (b) the right to national independence and sovereignty.
- Operative paragraph 2 (PDF p.1). Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return.
- Operative paragraph 3 (PDF p.1). Emphasizes that full respect for and the realization of these inalienable rights are indispensable for the solution of the question of Palestine.
- Operative paragraph 4 (PDF p.1). Recognizes that the Palestinian people is a principal party in the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
- Operative paragraph 5 (PDF p.1). Further recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain its rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter.
- Operative paragraph 6 (PDF p.1). Appeals to all States and international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people in its struggle to restore its rights, in accordance with the Charter.
- Operative paragraphs 7-9 (PDF p.1). Requests the Secretary-General to establish contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization on all matters concerning the question of Palestine; requests the Secretary-General to report to the thirtieth session on implementation; decides to include the item entitled Question of Palestine in the provisional agenda of its thirtieth session. 2296th plenary meeting, 22 November 1974. No vote figures are given.
- Following text (PDF p.1). Resolution 3237 (XXIX), Observer status for the Palestine Liberation Organization, in full — the subject of its own source page in this batch.
Key passages
- “Reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine” (operative paragraph 1, PDF p.1).
- “to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted” (operative paragraph 2, on the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return, PDF p.1).
Evidence the work relies on
A General Assembly resolution, not an evidentiary work. It rests procedurally on the debate it records — the Palestine Liberation Organization’s statement at the 2282nd plenary meeting (paras. 3-83, footnote 14) and the other statements made during the debate — and on the Assembly’s relevant prior resolutions affirming Palestinian self-determination, which the preamble recalls without numbering them. It cites no reports or statistics.
Analysis
The resolution restates the Palestine question in national-rights terms: the subject is “the Palestinian people in Palestine”, its rights are specified as self-determination, independence and sovereignty plus return, and the people itself, not only its refugees, is made a principal party to any peace. Compared with the same session’s file for Resolution 2535 (XXIV) B: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (10 December 1969), whose part B reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine without specifying them, this text enumerates the rights and adds machinery — Secretary-General contacts with the PLO and a report to the next session. Its limits are in the text: no territory, boundary or timetable is named, “all means” in paragraph 5 is bounded only by the Charter’s purposes and principles, and no vote figures are given in the file.
People, organizations, places and events
UN General Assembly Resolution 3236, Palestine Liberation Organization
Concepts
Self-determination, Right of Return
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text behind the existing UN General Assembly Resolution 3236 entity page, whose accounts from the United Nations studies are now held alongside the resolution’s own wording: Part II of the study gives the vote as 87 in favour, 8 against, 37 abstentions and the 1978 right-of-return study gives 89 in favour, 8 against, 37 abstentions — a conflict between those two ingested accounts, recorded on the entity page, which this file does not settle because it gives no figures. The resolution is the basis reaffirmed a year later by Resolution 3376 (XXX): Question of Palestine (10 November 1975), which built the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on its paragraphs 1 and 2, and by Resolution 3375 (XXX) on the same printed page as 3376. Its paragraph 2 return wording is framed as an inalienable right of the Palestinians generally, distinct from Resolution 194 (III): Palestine — Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator paragraph 11’s refugees-wishing-to-return formula. It was adopted at the same 2296th plenary meeting as Resolution 3237 (XXIX): Observer status for the Palestine Liberation Organization (22 November 1974), and five months after the PLO Interim Political Program (Ten-Point Program) (8 June 1974) asserted the same rights from the Palestinian side.
Open questions
- The file gives no vote figures for Resolution 3236; the two ingested United Nations studies give conflicting figures (87-8-37 and 89-8-37), held on the entity page.
- The prior resolutions the preamble “recalls” as affirming Palestinian self-determination are not numbered in the text.
- The PLO statement the preamble records having heard is identified only by meeting and paragraph range (2282nd meeting, paras. 3-83); its text is not in this file.
Coverage
PDF p.1 of 1, read in full.