The United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights (UNDPR) is a part of the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat.
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The UNDPR, originally named Special Unit on Palestinian Rights in the United Nations Secretariat, was created by the UNGA Resolution 3240 of December 2, 1977:
The Division's mandate has been renewed annually and has been expanded several times over the years, in particular to include the organization of international meetings, the establishment of a computer-based information system called the United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL) [2] and the holding of an annual training program for staff of the Palestinian Authority.
The core functions of the Division include:
The Division prepares the following publications on a regular basis:
The Division has conducted an annual training program for staff of the Palestinian Authority since 1996. The program is carried out at United Nations Headquarters in New York in cooperation with the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations in conjunction with the convening of the General Assembly.
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed annually to commemorate the adoption on November 29, 1947 of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II), which provided for the partition of Palestine into two States. The observance takes place at UN Headquarters in New York and at the UN Offices at Geneva and Vienna and elsewhere. The event includes meetings, Palestinian exhibits, film showings and other activities organized by governmental bodies and NGOs, in cooperation with the United Nations Information Centers.
The UNDPR was created according to the UNGA resolution 3376 [3], passed on November 10, 1975, on the same basis and on the same day as the Resolution 3379, which qualified Zionism as a form of racism (later revoked by the Resolution 4686).
In her June 21, 2004 speech [4] at a Conference on Confronting anti-Semitism: Education for Tolerance and Understanding sponsored by the United Nations Department of Information and in her articles [5], human rights scholar and activist Anne Bayefsky, attending as representative of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, criticized the UN approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, advocated the necessity of deep reforms within the UN, and noted that the UNDPR is the only UN Division devoted to a single group of people and the annual UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is the only UN day dedicated to a specific people.
The event celebrating an annual "International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People" on November 29, 2005 was attended by Kofi Annan and other high-ranking diplomats. In his January 3, 2006 letter to Mr. Annan, the US ambassador John Bolton criticized the UN for promoting anti-Israel agenda and noted that the map prominently displayed at the event "erases the state of Israel".