Important communiqué du PCHR concernant l’UNRWA

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PCHR
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Press Release

Ref : 65/2011
Date : 18 July 2011
Time : 10:00 GMT

PCHR Calls upon UNRWA to Be Literally Committed to Its Name as established by the General Assembly Resolution

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is gravely concerned over the update made by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) to its website in both English and Arabic. The update included changing UNRWA’s name to « United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, » which has legal and political implications.

The change of name indeed raises serious concerns, especially in light of the political efforts made at the international level to undermine the issue of Palestinian refugees, which is the core of the Palestinian cause.

PCHR has followed closely the negative reactions to this change at the Palestinian and Arab level, which have increased in the course of the past two weeks, including the reactions of the Palestinian political powers and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and movements within the framework of the League of Arab States.

On the other hand, UNRWA denied any substantial change in its name or the mandate assigned to it by the UN General Assembly. Moreover, it maintained that the update is nothing more than a formal change and an improvement to the website as part of the efforts done to attract international funding to UNRWA. After the criticism the Agency has made another change to its website, as it re-inserted the sentence « United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees » in a small font under its logo, but it kept the disputable modification in the name - « United Nations for Palestinian Refugees. »

PCHR stresses the following :

1. PCHR denounces the UN Agency’s administration unilateral amendment of its name whatever the motives of this change are. PCHR also stresses that the Agency’s name « United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees » was literally mentioned in the UN General Assembly’s resolution No. 302 of 1949, which established UNRWA and decided its mandate.

2. No party or person is authorized to change the literal name mentioned in the resolution by the UN General Assembly, which established the Agency and is the sole institution with the competence to make changes. Therefore, the UNRWA Commissioner-General or any other person is not authorized to amend or change the Agency’s name.

3. The last update on the name following the condemning reactions is not sufficient, and therefore, the original name has to be returned as it was mentioned literally in the General Assembly’s resolution.

4. If the Agency’s claim was true, that such change is not politically motivated and only wanted to make improvements to the website, such improvements could be done without changing the name.

5. PCHR stresses its full support to PLO’s position as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which demands an urgent action in the framework of the United Nations, the League of Arab States and the countries hosting Palestinian refugees in order to preserve the work of UNRWA and ensure its existence under its name, mandate and services.

Public Document
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