OEA/Ser.P
AG/RES. 1771 (XXXI-O/01)
5 June 2001
Original: Spanish
PROMOTION OF AND RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
(Resolution adopted at the third plenary session, held on
June 5, 2001;
subject to review by the Style Committee)
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
RECALLING its resolutions AG/RES. 1270 (XXIV-O/94), AG/RES.
1335 (XXV-O/95), AG/RES. 1408 (XXVI-O/96), AG/RES. 1503 (XXVII-O/97),
AG/RES. 1565 (XXVIII-O/98), AG/RES. 1619 (XXIX-O/99), and
AG/RES. 1706 (XXX-O/00);
HAVING HEARD the report of the Chair of the Committee on
Juridical and Political Affairs on the Promotion of and Respect
for International Humanitarian Law (CP/ACTA 1276/01);
DEEPLY CONCERNED over the persistent violations of
international humanitarian law occurring throughout the world
and, in particular, over attacks on the civilian population,
which is sometimes forced into displacement;
RECALLING that it is the obligation of all states to observe
and enforce, in all circumstances, the standards established in
the 1949 Geneva Conventions and, where applicable, for those
states that are parties thereto, those contained in the 1977
Additional Protocols to those conventions;
UNDERSCORING the need to strengthen the standards of
international humanitarian law by achieving its universal
acceptance, its widest possible dissemination, and its
application;
AWARE of the need to punish those responsible for war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and other grave breaches of
international humanitarian law;
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT in this context the historic significance
of the adoption in Rome of the Statute of the International
Criminal Court, which has already been ratified by 32 countries
throughout the world;
CONSIDERING the importance of the Convention on the Safety of
United Nations and Associated Personnel, whose objective is to
protect both military and civilian members of United Nations
operations;
CONVINCED that women and children deserve particular protection,
and welcoming the adoption in May 2000 of the Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement
of children in armed conflicts;
DISMAYED by the negative impact of the illicit production of
and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other
related materials on personal safety and on the stability of our
societies;
EMPHASIZING ONCE MORE the ongoing efforts of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to promote and
disseminate knowledge of international humanitarian law and the
activities it carries out as an organization that is
independent, neutral, and impartial under any and all
circumstances;
RECOGNIZING the important part played by the national
committees or commissions established in numerous countries for
the dissemination and application of international humanitarian
law in ensuring that the Geneva Conventions and the Additional
Protocols thereto, as well as the other instruments of
international humanitarian law, are incorporated into the
domestic law of the member states that are parties to those
instruments, so that compliance with those instruments and the
dissemination thereof are ensured; and
EXPRESSING its satisfaction with the increasing cooperation
between the General Secretariat of the Organization and the ICRC,
resulting from the agreement signed on May 10, 1996, and
illustrated by common achievements such as the conference on
national application of international humanitarian law and
related inter-American conventions, held with the participation
of government experts, in March 2001, in San José, Costa Rica,
RESOLVES:
1. To welcome the increase in the number of member states
that, in the past year, have ratified or acceded to various
instruments of international humanitarian law, particularly the
1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,
Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their
Destruction (Convention of Ottawa) and the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court.
2. To urge the member states that have not yet done so to
consider ratification of, or, if applicable, accession to the
1977 Additional Protocols I and II to the 1949 Geneva
Conventions, and to consider making the declaration contained in
Article 90 of Protocol I.
3. Also to urge the member states that have not yet done so
to consider ratification of or, as appropriate, accession to the
Statute of the International Criminal Court.
4. Further, to urge member states that have not yet done so
to consider ratification of, or, if applicable, accession to the
following instruments relating to weapons, which may be
excessively injurious or have indiscriminate effects:
a. 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 the
Protocols thereto); and
b. The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,
Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines
and on Their Destruction.
5. To invite those member states that have not yet done so to
consider becoming parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the
Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict,
and to its 1954 Protocol, as well as to its 1999 Second Protocol
on enhanced protection.
6. To urge member states that have not yet done so to
consider becoming parties to the 1989 Convention on the Rights
of the Child, and to its Optional Protocol on the involvement of
children in armed conflict, which includes the participation of
children in armed conflict, as well as their recruitment into
the armed forces and armed groups.
7. To underscore how important it is for states, in
accordance with the international legal obligations they have
undertaken, in times of peace as well as in times of armed
conflict, to pay special attention to the following provisions:
a. The widest possible dissemination of international
humanitarian law throughout the population, particularly among
the armed forces and security forces, by including it in
official instruction programs and in the training of permanent
armed forces staff (Articles 47, 48, 127, and 144, respectively,
of the four Geneva Conventions, and Articles 83 and 11,
respectively, of the two Additional Protocols);
b. The enactment of criminal legislation required to punish
those responsible for war crimes and other grave breaches of
international humanitarian law (Articles 49, 50, 129, and 146,
respectively, of the four Geneva Conventions, and Article 85 of
Additional Protocol I);
c. The enactment of legislation to regulate the use of
emblems protected under international humanitarian law and to
punish the improper use thereof (Articles 54 and 45,
respectively, of the first and second Geneva Conventions, and
Article 38 of Additional Protocol I and its annex containing the
regulations thereto); and
d. The obligation, in the study, development, acquisition, or
adoption of new weapons or means and methods of warfare, to
determine whether its employment would violate international
humanitarian law, and, if it would, not to adopt it for use
within the armed forces or security forces nor to manufacture it
for other purposes (Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the
Geneva Conventions).
8. To urge the member states that have not yet done so to
study, with the support of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC), the advisability of establishing national
committees or commissions to implement and disseminate
international humanitarian law.
9. To urge member states and all parties to an armed conflict
to respect the impartiality, independence, and neutrality of
humanitarian action in accordance with the guiding principles
adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution
46/182, dated December 19, 1991, and to ensure that the staff of
humanitarian organizations are protected.
10. To invite the member states and the parties in a conflict
to continue to cooperate with the ICRC in its various spheres of
responsibility and to facilitate its work, in particular, by
using its advisory services to support states' efforts to
implement international humanitarian law.
11. To request the General Secretariat to continue, through
the Secretariat for Legal Affairs and in coordination with the
ICRC, its work in the area of legal cooperation designed to
promote the dissemination, ratification, and implementation of
treaties on international humanitarian law and related
inter-American conventions, taking into account the progress
achieved at the conference held with the participation of
government experts in San José, Costa Rica, in March 2001.
12. To request the Secretary General to report to the
Permanent Council before the thirty-second regular session of
the General Assembly on the implementation of this resolution.
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