United Nations General Assembly

10 October 2002

Original: English

Fifty-seventh session

First Committee

Agenda item 66 (j)

General and complete disarmament: relationship
between disarmament and development

South Africa:* draft resolution

Relationship between disarmament and development

The General Assembly,

Recalling the provisions of the Final Document of the Tenth Special Session of the General Assembly concerning the relationship between disarmament and development,

Recalling also the adoption on 11 September 1987 of the Final Document of the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development,

Recalling further its resolutions 49/75 J of 15 December 1994, 50/70 G of 12 December 1995, 51/45 D of 10 December 1996, 52/38 D of 9 December 1997, 53/77 K of 4 December 1998, 54/54 T of 1 December 1999, 55/33 l of 20 November 2000 and 56/24 E of 29 November 2001,

Bearing in mind the Final Document of the Twelfth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Durban, South Africa, from 29 August to 3 September 1998, and the Final Document of the Thirteenth Ministerial Conference of the Movement of Non-Aligned countries, held at Cartagena, Colombia, on 8 and 9 April 2000,

Welcoming the different activities organized by the high-level Steering Group on Disarmament and Development and the views and proposals received from Governments on the issue, as contained in the report of the Secretary-General,

Stressing the importance of the symbiotic relationship between disarmament and development in current international relations, and concerned with increasing global military expenditure, which could otherwise be spent on development needs,

Taking into account developments in the context of disarmament and international security since the end of the cold war, as well as new perspectives and goals on development issues issuing from, inter alia, the Millennium Declaration, the Doha Ministerial Declaration of the World Trade Organization, the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development and the Johannesburg Declaration and Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development,

Mindful of the changes in international relations that have taken place since the adoption on 11 September 1987 of the Final Document of the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development, including the development agenda that emerged over the past decade,

Bearing in mind the new challenges for the international community in the field of development, poverty eradication and the elimination of the diseases that afflict humanity,

1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General, submitted pursuant to resolution 56/24 E, including its proposal to consider the establishment of a group of governmental experts to undertake a review of the relationship between disarmament and development in the context of current international relations, as well as the role of the Organization in this connection;

2. Requests the Secretary-General, within available financial resources and with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be established in 2003 on the basis of equitable geographical distribution, while seeking the views of States, to present for the consideration of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session a report with recommendations for a reappraisal of the relationship between disarmament and development in the current international context, as well as the future role of the Organization in this connection;

3. Calls upon the high-level Steering Group on Disarmament and Development to strengthen and enhance its programme of activities, in accordance with the mandate contained in paragraph 35 (ix) b of the Action Programme adopted at the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to take action, through appropriate organs and within available resources, for the implementation of the Action Programme adopted at the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development;

5. Urges the international community to devote part of the resources made available by the implementation of disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development, with a view to reducing the ever widening gap between developed and developing countries;

6. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eighth session the item entitled "Relationship between disarmament and development".