A/RES/72/82 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 14 December 2017 Seventy-second session Agenda item 53 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 7 December 2017 [on the report of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) (A/72/447)] 72/82. Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, 212 (III) of 19 November 1948, 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 and all subsequent related resolutions, including its resolution 71/93 of 6 December 2016, Recalling also the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, Having considered the report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2016, 1 Taking note of the letter dated 25 May 2017 from the Chair of the Advisory Commission of the Agency addressed to the Commissioner -General, 2 and noting the extraordinary meeting of the Commission held on 8 September 2016, Underlining that, at a time of heightened conflict and instability in the Middle East, the Agency continues to play a vital role in ameliorating the plight of the Palestine refugees through the provision of, inter alia, essential education, health, relief and social services programmes and emergency assistance to a registered population of more than 5.3 million refugees whose situation has become extremely precarious, in mitigating the consequences of alarming trends, including increasing violence, marginalization and poverty, in the areas of operation, and in providing a crucial measure of stability in the region, Deeply concerned about the extremely critical financial situation of the Agency, caused by the structural underfunding of the Agency, as well as by rising __________________ 1 2 17-22109 (E) Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-second Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/72/13/Rev.1). Ibid., pp. 7–9. 181217 *1722109*

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