United Nations Fourth Committee

The United Nations Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly (also known as the Special Political and Decolonization Committee) is one of six committees of the United Nations (consisting of all UN members). When the system of main committees was created, the Fourth Committee was responsible for trusteeship and decolonization-related matters. After the dismantling of the trusteeship system resulting from independence being granted to all the trust territories, and the sharp reduction in the number of non-self-governing territories, the Fourth Committee's workload decreased. The Fourth Committee was merged with the Special Political Committee (which had been created as a seventh committee of the whole to deal with certain political issues after the General Assembly found that the First Committee (originally the Political and Security Committee) was too busy). The Fourth Committee deals with decolonization, Palestinian refugees and human rights, peacekeeping, mine action, outer space, public information, atomic radiation and the University for Peace.