Addis Ababa — Two months after the 102nd meeting of the 69th General Assembly meeting, where a vote on the raising of flags by non-member observer States at the United Nations was passed, Palestine's flag will be raised, for the first time, on November 27 at the UN campus in Addis Ababa.

To mark the International Solidarity Day with the Palestinian people, celebrated on and around 29 November, the United Nations decided that the flags of non-member observer States maintaining permanent observer missions at Headquarters, including the flag of the State of Palestine, shall be raised at Headquarters and United Nations offices following the flags of the Members States of the Organization.

The flag-raising ceremony taking place at the UN campus in Addis Ababa will be attended by officials of the Ethiopian government, the African Union Commission, the UN, Palestine and members of the diplomatic corps.

In 1977, the General Assembly called for the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The International Day of Solidarity has provided an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine remained unresolved. It also serves to remind the world that the Palestinian people are yet to attain their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly, namely, the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced.