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  4. Document 907
Editorial Note

On December 2, 1950, the General Assembly adopted the 14-nation federation plan for the disposition of Eritrea. The vote was 46 in favor, 10 against, and 4 abstentions. The General Assembly decisively rejected Soviet and Polish proposals for independence, previously defeated in the Ad Hoc Political Committee. At the same session, the General Assembly appointed a committee to nominate one or more candidates for the post of United Nations Commissioner for Eritrea.

For the text of the final decision of the General Assembly on Eritrea, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifth Session, Plenary Meetings, pages 529 ff. Hereafter cited as GA (V), Plenary.

On December 2, 1950, the General Assembly also adopted the trusteeship agreement for Somaliland under Italian administration, previously approved by the Trusteeship Council on January 27, 1950. The vote in the General Assembly was 44 in favor, 6 against, and no abstentions. The agreement imposed on Italy as the administering authority the obligation to establish political institutions, to promote economic development, to further the social development of the inhabitants, to establish an educational system, and to guarantee civil rights in the trust territory. Attached to the agreement was a declaration of constitutional principles which formed an integral part of the agreement. The declaration guaranteed the rights of the inhabitants of Somaliland and the development of governmental institutions to aid in the achievement of self-government and independence by December 2, 1960, ten years from the date of the General Assembly’s approval of the agreement.

For the text of the agreement approved by the General Assembly, see United Nations, Official Records of the Trusteeship Council, Fifth Session, Trusteeship Agreement for the Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration as Approved by the General Assembly on 2 December, 1950. For the proceedings of the General Assembly with respect to its vote on the agreement, see GA (V), Plenary, pages 547 ff.