A/RES/50/138 GA

UNITED UNITED A NATIONS NATIONS General Assembly Distr. GENERAL A/RES/50/138 30 January 1996 Fiftieth session Agenda item 104 RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY [on the report of the Third Committee (A/50/627)] 50/138. Use of mercenaries as a means to violate human rights and to impede the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 49/150 of 23 December 1994, Recalling also all of its relevant resolutions, in which, inter alia, it condemned any State which permitted or tolerated the recruitment, financing, training, assembly, transit and use of mercenaries with the objective of overthrowing the Governments of States Members of the United Nations, especially those of developing countries, or of fighting against national liberation movements, and recalling also the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Organization of African Unity, Reaffirming the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations concerning the strict observance of the principles of sovereign equality, political independence, territorial integrity of States and self- determination of peoples, Alarmed and concerned about the danger that the activities of mercenaries constitute to peace and security in developing countries, particularly in Africa and in small States, where democratically elected Governments have been overthrown by mercenaries or through mercenary international criminal activities, Deeply concerned about the loss of life, the substantial damage to property and the negative effects on the polity and economies of affected countries resulting from mercenary aggression and criminal activities, Convinced that it is necessary for Member States to ratify the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training 96-76315 /... A/RES/50/138 Page 2 of Mercenaries, 1/ adopted by the General Assembly in 1989, and to develop and maintain international cooperation among States for the prevention, prosecution and punishment of mercenary activities, 1. Takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights 2/ on the use of mercenaries and mercenary-related activities to topple sovereign Governments and to undermine the rights of peoples to self-determination despite resolution 49/150; 2. Reaffirms that the use of mercenaries and their recruitment, financing and training are causes for grave concern to all States and violate the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations; 3. Urges all States to take the necessary steps and to exercise the utmost vigilance against the menace posed by the activities of mercenaries and to take necessary legislative measures to ensure that their territories and other territories under their control, as well as their nationals, are not used for the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and transit of mercenaries for the planning of activities designed to destabilize or overthrow the Government of any State or threaten the territorial integrity and political unity of sovereign States, or to promote secession or fight the national liberation movements struggling against colonial or other forms of alien domination or occupation; 4. Calls upon all States which have not yet done so to consider taking necessary action to sign or to ratify the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries; 5. Urges all States to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of his mandate; 6. Requests the Centre for Human Rights of the Secretariat, as a matter of priority, to publicize the adverse effects of mercenary activities on the right to self-determination and, when requested where necessary, to render advisory services to States which are affected by the activities of mercenaries; 7. Requests the Special Rapporteur to report, with specific recommendations, his findings on the new elements identified in the use of mercenaries to undermine the rights of peoples to self-determination to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. 97th plenary meeting 21 December 1995 1/ Resolution 44/34, annex. 2/ A/50/390 and Add.1.

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