UN picks Afghan envoy as VP of Palestinian committee

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - Afghanistan's permanent representative to the UN was elected Thursday to serve as vice president of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP).

Adela Raz was unanimously selected for the position during a meeting of the CEIRPP Thursday morning.

"Congratulations to H.E. @AdelaRaz unanimously elected as Vice President of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People," the UN committee said on Twitter.

The UN established the CEIRPP in 1975 with the purpose of creating a program to enable Palestinian people to exercise their rights to self-determination and to attempt to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced.

"Approximately two million Palestinians remain mired in increasing poverty and unemployment, with limited access to adequate health, education, water and electricity," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks to the committee last month.

"Afghanistan is ready to continue its effective role in the committee, and look forward to a productive year ahead of us," the Afghanistan mission to the UN posted on Twitter.

Raz was selected as Afghanistan's first female permanent representative to the UN in December 2018.