Bethlehem 2000

Malta, as a member of the Bureau of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, has sponsored a request addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to include a new item on the agenda of the fifty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly, entitled "Bethlehem 2000". It is expected that this request be considered by the General Committee and later by the Plenary of the General Assembly when it meets in the third week of September 1998.

The request, submitted jointly with the Permanent Representatives of Afghanistan, Cuba and Senegal who also form part of the Bureau, was made in response to a decision taken on 16th April 1998 by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, of which Malta has been Rapporteur since its establishment in 1975.

Copy of the Explanatory Memorandum annexed to the request made to the United Nations Secretary-General is attached to the Press Release. 16.06.98