United Nations FOURTH COMMITTEE, 1737th GENERAL MEETING ASSEMBLY Monday, 4 December 1967, at 3.30 p.m. TWENTY-SECOND SESSION Official Records NEW YORK CONTENTS never been discussed in its present form and depth, Page the General Assembly and the Special Committee had Agenda item 97: on previous occasions asked the specialized agencies Implementation of the Declaration on the and the international institutions associated with the Granting of Independence to Colonial Coun­ United Nations to co-operate with the Organization tries and Peoples by the specialized agen­ in the process of decolonization, either by giving cies and the international institutions asso­ assistance to the people of the colonial Territories ciated with the United Nations (continued) or by refraining from assisting some colonial Powers. General debate (concluded). • • • • • • • • • • • 381 As documents A/AC.109/276.!/ and A/6825 showed, some of the specialized agencies had responded Agenda item 69: favourably but others had either merely taken note Question of Fiji: report of the Special Com­ of the requests or ignored them. The fundamental mittee on the Situation with regard to the issue should therefore be how to co-ordinate the Implementation of the Declaration on the activities of the United Nations and its specialized Granting of Independence to Colonial Coun- agencies in the field of decolonization. Co-operation tries and Peoples • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 383 between them in that area should be reviewed. It was Agenda item 70: incomprehensible that the activities of the specialized Question of Oman (continued): agencies in furthering the purposes and principles of @) Report of the Special Committee on the the United Nations Charter by assisting the peoples Situation with regard to the Implementa­ of the world in various fields should stop short at tion of the Declaration on the Granting of the colonial Territories, where they were sometimes Independence to Colonial Countries and desperately needed. Peoples,· (]}) Report of the Secretary-General 2. According to the Charter of the United Nations, General debate (concluded). • • • • • • • • • • • 384 the constitutions of the specialized agencies and the agreements concluded between the United Nations and Agenda item 23: the specialized agencies, the United Nations family Implementation of the Declaration on the of organizations should co-ordinate its. efforts in Granting of Independence to Colonial Coun­ furthering the purposes and principles of the Charter. tries and Peoples: report of the Special The objectives were, in the last analysis, the same; Committee on the Situation with regard to they were clearly described in the preamble to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Charter, according to which the United Nations family Granting of Independence to Colonial Coun­ of organizations should work together to promote the tries and Peoples: Territories not consi­ economic and social advancement of all peoples, dered separately (continued) whether dependent or independent, in conditions of Hearings of petitioners from British Hon- freedom, peace and security. There could be no duras (concluded). • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 387 peace unless the colonial peoples achieved freedom Requests for hearings (continued) and independence, and no economic and social pro­ Request concerning Antigua (agenda item 23). 390 gress for them without freedom. Those points were emphasized in the fourth and seventh preambular Chairman: Mr. George J. TOMEH (Syria). paragraphs of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV). The objectives of the United Nations family of organizations, as set out in their constitutions, could In the absence of the Chairman, Mr. Braithwaite not, therefore, be fully achieved in a large part of (Guyana), Vice-Chairman, took the Chair. the world unless the obstacles to peace and freedom were eliminated. AGENDA ITEM 97 3. The specialized agencies could play a useful role, Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of not only in the liquidation of colonialism but, even Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples more, in overcoming the problems created by colo­ by the specialized agencies and the international nialism and in the reconstruction ofthe colonial Terri­ institutions associated with the United Nations (con­ tories. Their activities should not be limited to as­ tinued) (A/6700/Rev .1, chap. I, annex Ill, and chap. V, sisting the colonial peoples to free themselves from annex; A/6825) colonial rule; they should also contribute to the es­ GENERAL DEBATE (concluded) tablishment of new foundations in the economic, 1. Mr. ABDEL-WAHAB (United Arab Republic) said JJ For the printed text of this docwnent, see A/6700/Rev.l, chap. 1, that, although the agenda item under consideration had annex III. 381 A/C.4/SR.1737 382 General Assembly - Twenty-second Session - Fourth Committee social and educational sectors which would greatly ciple arose when it came to issuing guidance and assist the colonial peoples after they had achieved instruction in far-reaching policy matters, rather independence. Each specialized agency should, in its than simply co-ordinating activities. For many years own field, assist the liberation movements in their the competent United Nations bodies had exercised struggle, refrain from helping the colonial Powers, their powers to make specific recommendations to in particular those which violated the Charter, and the specialized agencies with great restraint. Sug­ provide all possible facilities to the liberation move­ gestions and appeals had been made to the specialized ments in their efforts to prepare the people for the agencies, especially concerning the practical co­ future administration of the Territories. ordination of their activities, and the general policies laid down by the competent United Nations organs 4. In considering the question of the co-ordination concerning economic development and social and of activities among the various members of the humanitarian questions had influenced the specialized United Nations family of organizations in the field agencies considerably. In the early years, steps had of decolonization, the Special Committee should been taken to bring the attitude of the specialized examine: first, the ways and means of co-ordinating agencies into line with that of the General Assembly such activities, in which it might be guided by United on political questions, but that practice had been Nations practices in the field of technical assistance discontinued. The direct appeals made by the General and receive help from the Enlarged Committee for Assembly, acting on reports of the Fourth Committee, Programme and Co-ordination and from the Secre­ to certain specialized agencies or other institutions tary-General; and secondly, the channels through for specific action concerning colonial Territories which assistance from the specialized agencies could had been individual and separate actions on the part reach the colonial peoples. On the second point, his of the Assembly, and the scope of such appeals had delegation thought that, in the case of the African been limited. In some cases, the appeals had led to Territories, such assistance might be channelled positive action, but in others the principles involved jointly through the liberation movements and the and legal considerations arising out of specific pro­ Organization of African Unity, as the regional or­ visions of the agreements between the United Nations ganization concerned. and certain specialized agencies had led to pro­ tracted discussions and the results of the appeals 5. The fact that in most of the remaining colonial had been inconclusive. Such cases had shown that it Territories the specialized agencies were not al­ was time to consider the questions of principle lowed to function should not prevent them from pro­ concerning the relationship between the United Nations viding the necessary assistance through the liberation and the specialized agencies. movements, which had been recognized by the United Nations as the authorities directly concerned. All 9. That relationship was being considered by an­ kinds of assistance should be provided to the colonial other Committee of the General Assembly, whose peoples in their struggle against foreign domination, mandate it was to deal specifically with such matters. a struggle which the United Nations had recognized In resolution 2188 (XXI) the Assembly had enlarged as legitimate. The specialized agencies should re­ the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination port in detail to the United Nations on their activities and requested it to undertake a general review of in the colonial Territories in order to enable the the programmes and activities in the economic, General Assembly to assess the situation. social, technical co-operation and related fields of all the organizations in the United Nations system. 6. He hoped that the representatives of the spe­ The Enlarged Committee for Programme and Co­ cialized agencies would be in a position to comment ordination had already started its work and, in its on the various proposals which had been made during report to the Economic and Social Council and the the debate and inform the Committee in detail of General Assembly,.Y had indicated the topics which their activities in the colonial Territories and of it would consider, first among which were the consti­ the problems which they were encountering in that tutional, legal and organizational issues, including area. the relations