Today, the 29th of November, is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which called for by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1977. It was the same day on which the UN General Assembly made its famous resolution to divide up Palestine into two states in 1947.

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The celebration of this day for the current is historically different from previous celebrations, which used to confine themselves into ceremonies and speeches beside highlighting the Palestinian cause; for the current year, solidarity with the Palestinian people takes a practical form which moves closer to achieving the real meaning of world solidarity with the Palestinian people, where it is in this day that the draft resolution  to grant Palestine an observer status at the United Nations will be adopted into a resolution from within the corridors of the General Assembly of the United Nations at its sixty-seventh session. This development is considered as a major victory for Palestinian diplomacy and the Palestinian people at large.

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In addition to the victory scored in favour of the Palestinian cause, regarding the membership of the Palestinian state at the United Nations, the adoption of this resolution reaffirms values long talked about and advocated by the United Nations such as the principle of "equality of peoples’ rights", the principle of "the right to self-determination" and the principle of "the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by force." beside other principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations. The resolution also restores to life a huge number of UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue, which were kept in  the archives of the United Nations without being translated into reality, thereby pushing the Palestinian cause forward. Examples of these decisions include the UN resolution which refers to the right of Palestinian people to self determination and the establishment of an independent state over which it will exercise its full sovereignty, and the decision by the General Assembly of the United Nations in which it recognized the proclamation of the State of Palestine and approved the use of “Palestine” instead of the “Palestine Liberation Organization”, together with other relevant resolutions issued by the General Assembly, the Security Council, or other of the United Nations organs.

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The UN General Assembly expressed, in the draft resolution on which a vote will be cast today, its hope that the Security Council agree to the request made by the State of Palestine on September 23, 2011 to get full membership in the United Nations. Equally, it confirmed its determination to contribute to the realization of the rights of the Palestinian people and to establish a peaceful settlement that will end the occupation and realize the two-state vision as represented by an independent Palestine State which enjoys sovereignty and democracy and an Israeli state based on pre-1967 borders. The draft resolution reaffirms the need to resume negotiations and accelerate their pace in order to achieve a peaceful, just, lasting, and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian issue.

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The draft resolution requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly on the progress made regarding the implementation of this resolution within three months after taking all measures necessary for its implementation.

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A group of countries announced their support for the draft resolution in advance, and their determination to vote for it.  The draft resolution will probably attract a high percentage of votes, from membership of the General Assembly which includes 193 countries, to its favor in a scene which expresses real solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle to achieve their fair and legitimate rights. We, in the Geneva Institute for Human Rights, are waiting for the issuance of this important decision in which we identify strong push to the Palestinian cause, and a real expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people in their just struggle.