General Assembly Distr.: Limited

9 October 2002

English

Original: Arabic

Fifty-seventh session

First Committee

Agenda item 66

General and complete disarmament

Iraq: draft resolution

Effects of the use of depleted uranium in armaments

The General Assembly,

Reaffirming the role of the United Nations in the field of disarmament and the necessity for Member States to take concrete steps to strengthen that role,

Recalling the provisions of the Final Document of the Tenth Special Session of the General Assembly, particularly paragraph 77 thereof, which calls for effective measures to avert the danger of new types of weapons of mass destruction and stresses the need to pursue efforts aimed at the prohibition of such new types and new systems of weapons of mass destruction,

Recalling also its previous resolutions on the prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, the most recent of which was its resolution 54/44,

Taking into account the facts that have come to light on the use of depleted uranium shells in military operations during recent years, inasmuch as such ammunition, when used, releases radioactive particles and chemical dust that are spread through the air over large areas and contaminate animal and plant life and the soil,

1.        Requests the Secretary-General to seek the views of States and relevant organizations on all aspects of the effects of the use of depleted uranium in armaments and to submit a report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session;

2.        Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eighth session an item entitled "Effects of the use of depleted uranium in armaments".