A/RES/71/93
United Nations
Distr.: General
22 December 2016
General Assembly
Seventy-first session
Agenda item 49
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 December 2016
[on the report of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee
(Fourth Committee) (A/71/493)]
71/93.
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 70/85 of 9 December 2015,
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 2015, 1
Taking note of the letter dated 31 May 2016 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 5.3 million refugees whose situation has become extremely
precarious, 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
needs and expenditures resulting from the deterioration of the socioeconomic and
humanitarian conditions and the conflicts and rising instability in the region and
their significant negative impact on the ability of the Agency to deliver essential
services to the Palestine refugees, including its emergency, recovery, reconstruction
and development programmes in all fields of operation,
_______________
1
2
Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/71/13).
Ibid., pp. 6 and 7.
16-21251 (E)
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