Sixty-first session Agenda item 31 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East * The submission of the report was delayed to await input requested from a Member State concerned. Persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities* Report of the Secretary-General Summary In its resolution 60/101, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to it, after consulting with the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), on the progress made in the implementation of the resolution. The present report refers to correspondence between the Secretary-General and the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations regarding actions taken by the Government of Israel in implementing the relevant provisions of the resolution. It also presents the information made available by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA to the Secretary-General on the return of refugees registered with the Agency to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic. 1. The present report is submitted to the General Assembly in pursuance of paragraph 5 of its resolution 60/101, entitled “Persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities”, the operative part of which reads: The General Assembly, ... 1. Reaffirms the right of all persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967; 2. Expresses deep concern that the mechanism agreed upon by the parties in article XII of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements of 1993 (A/48/486-S/26560, annex) on the return of displaced persons has not been complied with, and stresses the necessity for an accelerated return of displaced persons; 3. Endorses, in the meanwhile, the efforts of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to continue to provide humanitarian assistance, as far as practicable, on an emergency basis, and as a temporary measure, to persons in the area who are currently displaced and in serious need of continued assistance as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities; 4. Strongly appeals to all Governments and to organizations and individuals to contribute generously to the Agency and to the other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned for the above-mentioned purposes; 5. Requests the Secretary-General, after consulting with the Commissioner- General, to report to the General Assembly before its sixty-first session on the progress made with regard to the implementation of the present resolution. 2. On 4 May 2006, the Secretary-General addressed a note verbale to the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, in which he drew attention to his reporting responsibility under the resolution and requested the Permanent Representative to inform him of any action his Government had taken or envisaged taking in implementation of the relevant provisions of the resolution. No reply was received from the Permanent Representative of Israel. 3. In connection with paragraph 2 of General Assembly resolution 60/101, the Secretary-General has obtained from the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) the information available to her on the return of refugees registered with the Agency. As indicated in previous reports on the subject, the Agency is not involved in any arrangements for the return of refugees, nor is it involved in any arrangements for the return of displaced persons who are not registered as refugees. Its information is based on requests by returning registered refugees for transfer of their UNRWA registration records from Jordan, Lebanon or the Syrian Arab Republic to the areas to which they have returned. The Agency would not necessarily be aware of the return of any registered refugees who did not request the transfer of their registration records. So far as is known to the Agency, from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006, 1,272 refugees registered with UNRWA returned to the West Bank and 102 to the Gaza Strip from places outside the occupied Palestinian territory. It should be noted that some of these may not have been displaced in 1967, but may have been displaced in earlier or later years or may be members of the family of a displaced registered refugee. Thus, taking into account the estimate given in paragraph 4 of the previous report (A/60/212), the number of displaced registered refugees who are known by the Agency to have returned to the occupied territories since June 1967 is about 26,534. The Agency is unable to estimate the total number of displaced inhabitants who have returned. It keeps records only of registered refugees and, as pointed out above, even those records, particularly with respect to the location of registered refugees, may be incomplete. 4. In connection with paragraph 3 of General Assembly resolution 60/101, the Secretary-General refers to the report of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2005 and to the previous reports of the Commissioner-General for accounts of the continuous and ongoing assistance provided by UNRWA to persons displaced and in need of continued assistance. Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-first Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/61/13). __________________ __________________  sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/61/358 sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/61/358 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 06-52708 \* MERGEFORMAT 2 \* MERGEFORMAT 3 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 06-52708 United Nations A/61/358 General Assembly Distr.: General 18 September 2006 Original: English jobn \* MERGEFORMAT 06-52708 (E) 210906 Barcode \* MERGEFORMAT *0652708*