Secretary-General
The Secretary-General acts either personally or through his envoys in the interests of preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-building, and he represents the UN in the Middle East Quartet. represents the Secretary-General in all matters related to the peace process.
General Assembly
The General Assembly, comprised of all the Member States of the United Nations, has been involved in the quest for a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine since 1947. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was established by the Assembly in 1975.
Office of the Senior Humanitarian & Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza
The Office of the Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator oversees the facilitation, coordination, monitoring, and verification of humanitarian aid to Gaza. It establishes a UN mechanism to accelerate aid delivery, coordinates distributions through land entry points, and receives support from UNOPS to fulfill these duties efficiently.
Economic & Social Council
Over the course of the past years a series of resolutions have been adopted by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian population; and assistance on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Security Council
Under the United Nations Charter, the Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Since 1948, the Council has addressed the situation in the Middle East and the Palestinian question on many occasions. When fighting broke out, the Council has called for, or ordered cease-fires.
On 29 May 1948, the Security Council, in resolution 50 (1948), called for a cessation of hostilities in Palestine and decided that the truce should be supervised by the UN Mediator, with the assistance of a group of military observers. The first group of military observers, became known as the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).
The human rights situation in Palestine is also considered in the context of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Council has dispatched fact-finding missions to investigate violations of human rights. A permanent feature of the Council’s agenda is Item 7 on “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories”.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) by far the biggest UN operation in the Middle East, provides education, health, relief and social services for over 5 million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The UNDP Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP) derives its mandate from United Nations General Assembly Resolution 33/147 of 20 December 1978. Called upon by United Nations Member States in that year, UNDP was requested “to improve the economic and social conditions of the Palestinian people" by identifying their needs and establishing concrete projects to that end.
UNESCO's work in Palestine represents a sustained effort in international cooperation to support the Palestinian people in the main areas of UNESCO’s competence. From promoting the rights to education and freedom of expression, to safeguarding cultural and natural heritage sites, the wide range of projects and activities are designed to have an impact on the largest number of beneficiaries possible.
The World Bank began its program of assistance in the Palestinian territories in November 1992. Grants, financed from the World Bank’s own resources and supplemented by co-financing from development partners, fund the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) projects in water, energy, urban and local development, public financial management, social protection, education, health, and many others.
In the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), as elsewhere around the world, humanitarian aid is delivered by multiple actors. At OCHA oPt, we contribute to a principled and effective humanitarian response by fulfilling our global core functions: coordination, advocacy, policy, information management and humanitarian financing. We coordinate humanitarian action in Gaza and the West Bank to expand its reach, improve prioritization and reduce duplication.
WFP continues to provide unconditional food assistance through electronic vouchers, multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) and in-kind food parcels to severely food insecure Palestinians. WFP empowers Palestinians to make the right nutritional choices and be drivers of their overall health through a nutrition-focused social behaviour change communications project that advocates, raises awareness, and provides tools for targeted groups to improve nutritional health.
In its landmark Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated that Israel must put an immediate end to the violation of its international obligations by ceasing the works of construction of the wall and dismantling those parts of that structure situated within Occupied Palestinian Territory and repealing or rendering ineffective all legislative and regulatory acts adopted with a view to construction of the wall and establishment of its associated régime.
UNRoD is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly of the United Nations and operates under the administrative authority of the Secretary-General at the site of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) which provides administrative and logistical backstopping. UNRoD's mandate is to serve as a record of the damage caused to all natural and legal persons concerned as a result of the construction of the Wall by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
ESCWA seeks to develop, along with its Palestinian, regional and international partners, strategies to raise awareness of and mitigate the adverse impact of the occupation and military offensives by Israel, and to realize the rights of the Palestinian people, in particular to self-determination, return and development. It works to build the capacity of Palestinian institutions, both in the occupied territories and abroad, and encourages regional and international actors to forge development partnerships with their Palestinian counterparts.
UNICEF in the State of Palestine works to uphold the rights of children to access services and protection, from early childhood through to adolescence. Our objective is to ensure that every child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, irrespective of background or circumstance, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential.
The UN General Assembly (GA) Resolution A/RES/69/20 (2014) paragraph 9 requests UNCTAD to “report to the General Assembly on the economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people". This was affirmed by paragraph 9 in resolutions A/Res/70/12 (2015), A/Res/71/20 (2016), A/Res/72/13 (2017) and A/RES/73/18 (2018). The work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on the Palestinian economy is centred on research, analysis, and technical cooperation.