Palestinian NGO closes in on consultative status at UN
The Palestinian Return Center has taken a step toward consultative status as a nongovernmental organization dealing with Palestinian refugee issues, a recommendation that still needs ratification by the UN's Economic and Social Council.
COLOGNE, Germany — The United Nations recommended on June 1 granting the Palestinian Return Center (PRC) a consultative status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and said the finalization of this status would take place in July.
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations accepted the PRC's membership by a majority of 12 votes. Sudan, China, Iran, South Africa, Turkey, Pakistan, Cuba, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Mauritania, Guinea and Nicaragua were among the states that supported the resolution while the United States, Israel and Uruguay voted against it and Russia, Greece and India abstained.
The London-based PRC is a Palestinian-British consultancy focusing on “activating the issue of the Palestinian diaspora, demanding their right to return to their homes and resisting all settlement and displacement schemes aimed at liquidating the refugee issue. The PRC also focuses on introducing the true dimensions of the Palestinian issue to the public opinion in Europe, especially in Britain.”
The PRC was granted membership in the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on May 6, 2003. In 2010, it applied to the ECOSOC for consultative status as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) dealing with Palestinian refugee issues. The UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, consisting of 19 countries, made a recommendation to grant the PRC consultative status as an NGO dealing with Palestinian refugee issues. However, this resolution still needs authentication from the ECOSOC, composed of 54 countries.
