AG/RES. 1335 (XXV-O/95)

RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

(Resolution adopted at the ninth plenary session, held on June 9, 1995)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

CONSIDERING AND REAFFIRMING its resolution AG/RES. 1270 (XXIV-O/94) on respect for international humanitarian law and support for humanitarian assistance;

RECALLING the activities carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), especially in its capacity as an organization and as a specifically neutral and independent intermediary;

NOTING that there are member states that are still not parties to the various treaties on international humanitarian law, in particular, the additional protocols to the 1919 Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1977, and the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects;

PARTICULARLY ALARMED by the terrible and lasting consequences for the civilian population of the use of anti-personnel mines;

HAVING TAKEN NOTE of the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts, which was convened by the Swiss Government and met in Geneva from January 23 to 27, 1995, as part of the follow-up to the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims (Geneva 1993); and

AWARE of the importance of maintaining specific and effective measures to ensure respect for international humanitarian law,

RESOLVES:

  1. To urge member states that have not yet done so to consider the possibility of becoming parties to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, and to urge all member states to take part in the Review Conference on that Convention, scheduled to be held in Vienna from September 25 to October 13, 1995, with a view to promoting, in such countries that consider doing so desirable, the eventual prohibition of anti-personnel mines and the extension of the Convention's formal scope of application to non-international armed conflicts, and to consider the possibility of taking steps internally, also in those countries that consider doing so desirable, to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and exportation of anti-personnel mines.

  2. To call on member states that have not yet done so to give serious consideration to the adoption of legislation and other measures needed to apply and disseminate international humanitarian law and to monitor its implementation.

  3. To urge the member states to play an active part in the Twenty-sixth International Conference of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, to take place in Geneva from December 4 to 7, 1995.

  4. To invite the member states to continue their cooperation with the ICRC in its various areas of responsibility and to facilitate its work

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