Peacekeeping addressed.

The United Nations should continue to maintain international peace and security by effectively planning, deploying and managing peacekeeping operations, which should be provided with clearly defined mandates, objectives, command structures and secure financing; and congruity between mandates, resources and objectives must be ensured, stated the General Assembly on 10 December, in adopting a resolution which endorsed the proposals of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations.

Acting on the recommendations of its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), the Assembly approved a total of 26 resolutions and decisions related to peacekeeping, decolonization, information, Palestinian refugee relief, Israeli practices in the occupied territories, peaceful uses of outer space and the effects of atomic radiation.

The Assembly demanded a complete halt to construction of a new settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim, as well as of all Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem. It called upon Israel to desist from changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan and, in particular, to desist from the establishment of settlements there.

Israel, as the occupying Power, was also told to cease all practices and actions that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people, to accept the de jure applicability of the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to the occupied Arab territories and comply scrupulously with its provisions.

Taking up decolonization matters, the Assembly urged Morocco and the Frente Popular para la Liberacion de Sanguia el-Hamra y Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) to fully implement their agreements on implementation of the settlement plan in Western Sahara, which was reached during their private direct talks under the auspices of the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, James Baker III.

It also urged Spain and the United Kingdom to continue negotiations towards a definitive resolution of the matter of Gibraltar, and called upon all parties involved in New Caledonia to continue promoting a framework for the peaceful progress of the Territory towards self-determination.

An omnibus resolution on the situation in 12 NonSelf-Governing Territories - American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands - was also adopted.

The Assembly called on the administering Powers, in cooperation with the territorial Governments, to facilitate political education programmes in the NonSelf-Governing Territories, and reaffirmed the responsibility of the administering Powers to promote the political, economic, social and educational advancement of peoples of the Territories, as well as their rights over their natural resources.

The administrative Powers were also called on to eliminate the remaining military bases in the Territories, as the Assembly reaffirmed that they could constitute an obstacle to the right to self-determination, and reiterated that the Territories and adjacent areas should not be used for nuclear testing, dumping of nuclear waste, or deployment of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction.

Addressing questions relating to information, the world forum strongly reaffirmed its primary role in elaborating, coordinating and harmonizing United Nations policies and activities in that field. It also urged all countries, United Nations bodies and others concerned to cooperate with a view of reducing disparities in information flows at all levels, to ensure for journalists the free and effective performance of their professional tasks and condemn resolutely all attacks against them, and to aim, in addition to bilateral cooperation, at providing all possible support and assistance to the developing countries and their media. It appointed Georgia as a new member of the Committee on Information, increasing its number from 89 to 90 States.

As for the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III), the Assembly agreed that it should be convened at the United Nations Office at Vienna from 19 to 30 July 1999 as a special session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. It encouraged all States and others concerned to contribute actively to achieving the objectives of UNISPACE III.