Alternative Approaches and Ways and Means Within the United Nations System for Improving the Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 87 Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations System for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 1979.

What other versions does this mandate have?

19 versions · 1976–1995

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/49/186

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
1995	A/RES/49/186	Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations System for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms	927	79%Compare
1994	A/RES/48/123	Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations System for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms	1,142	—
1993	A/RES/47/137	Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations System for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms	—	—
1992	A/RES/46/117	Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations System for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms	—	—
1991	A/RES/45/96	Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations system for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms	—	—

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

Conferences Human Rights Human Rights Advancement International Economic Relations

What’s in this document?

20 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the entry into force on 28 March 1979 of article 41 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and invites the States parties to the Covenant to consider making the declaration provided for in article 41 ;

Appreciates that the Human Rights Committee 1. continues to strive for uniform standards in the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and of the Optional Protocol thereto and emphasizes the importance of the strictest compliance by States parties with their obligations under the Covenant;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to keep the Human Rights Committee informed of the activities of the Commission on Human Rights, the Sub- Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and also to transmit the annual reports of the Human Rights Committee to those bodies;

Notes with due attention the recommendation of the Human Rights Committee regarding the holding of future meetings of the Committee in developing countries39 and requests the Secretary-General to explore this possibility, taking into account the recommendation of the Committee, and to submit a report in this regard to the General Assembly at its thirty-fifth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its thirty-fifth session a report on the status of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

Further requests the Secretary-General, in preparing the report requested in Commission on Human Rights resolution 23 (XXXV) of 14 March 197940 concerning the development of public information activities in the field of human rights, to bear in mind the question of improving the publicity for the work of the Human Rights Committee;

Urges the Secretary-General to take all possible steps to ensure that the Division of Human Rights of the Secretariat is able to assist effectively the Human Rights Committee and the Economic and Social Council in the implementation of their respective functions under the International Covenants on Human Rights, taking into account General Assembly resolutions 3534 (XXX) of 17 December 1975 and 31/93 of 14 December 1976.

34 / 46.

Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations system for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms

Takes note with satisfaction of the report on the work relating to the over-all analysis of the United Nations approach to human rights45 submitted to the General Assembly by the Commission on Human Rights, through the Economic and Social Council, in accordance with paragraph 2 (a) of General Assembly resolution 32/130;

Requests the Commission on Human Rights to continue at its thirty-sixth session its ongoing work on the over-all analysis with a view to further promoting and improving human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the question of the Commission's programme and working methods, and on the over-all analysis of the alternative approaches and ways and means for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in accordance with the provisions and concepts of resolution 32/130;

Reiterates its profound conviction that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and interdependent, and that equal attention and urgent consideration should be given to the implementation, promotion and protection of both civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights;

Reaffirms the absolute necessity, under all circumstances, of eliminating massive and flagrant violations of human rights and of the rights of peoples and individuals affected by situations such as those enumerated in paragraph 1 (e) of resolution 32/130;

Reaffirms also that it is of paramount importance for the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms that Member States should undertake specific obligations through accession to or ratification of international instruments in this field and that, consequently, the standard-setting work within the United Nations system in the field of human rights and the universal acceptance and implementation of the relevant international instruments should be encouraged;

Emphasizes the need to create conditions at the national and international levels for the full promotion and protection of the human rights of individuals and peoples;

Recognizes that, in order fully to guarantee human rights and complete personal dignity, it is necessary to guarantee the right to work, participation of workers in management, and the right to education, health and proper nourishment, through the adoption of measures at the national and international levels, including the establishment of the new international economic order;

Emphasizes that the right to development is a human right and that equality of opportunity for development is as much a prerogative of nations as of individuals within nations;

Requests the Commission on Human Rights, at its thirty-sixth session, to consider the ~xisting human and other resources that the Division of Human Rights of the Secretariat has at its disposal for the implementation of General Assembly resolutions, on the basis of complete data which the Secretary-General is requested to provide to it, and thereafter to make recommendations, through the Economic and Social Council, to the Assembly at its thirty-fifth session, with a view to further improving the working of the Division;

Requests the Secretary-General to give, through the programme of advisory services in the field of human rights, priority to the holding in 1980 of a seminar, as already decided by the Economic and Social Council in its decision 1979/30, on the effect of the present unjust international economic order on the economies of developing countries and the obstacle that this constitutes for the implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular for the right to enjoy an adequate standard of living as stated in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

Requests the Secretary-General and concerned organs and bodies of the United Nations system to implement fully the recommendations contained in Economic and Social Council resolution 1979 /36;

Requests the Secretary-General to prepare, taking into account relevant information already available within the United Nations, and to submit to the General Assembly at its thirty-sixth session a study on the nature and extent to which the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms is affected by present international conditions, with particular reference to situations resulting from apartheid, from all forms of racial discrimination, from colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, from policies tending to divide the world into spheres of influence, from the arms race, from foreign domination and occupation, from aggression and threats against national sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity, from refusal to recognize the fundamental rights of peoples to self-determination and of every nation to the exercise of full sovereignty over its wealth and natural resources, from intervention and interference in the internal affairs of States, particularly with reference to developing countries, as well as from the existence of the unjust system of international economic relations, taking also into account the conclusions of the seminar mentioned in paragraph 10 above;

Also requests the Secretary-General to transmit the present resolution to the specialized agencies concerned and to all United Nations bodies that deal with human rights;

Further requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its thirty-fifth session a progress report on the implementation of the present resolution;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its thirty-fifth session the item entitled "Alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations system for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms".

34 / 4 7.

Services of the Secretariat concerned with human rights

89 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fourth Session, Third Committee, 31st meeting, para. 40.

4G See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1979, Supplement No. 6 (E/1979/36), chap. IX, sect. A.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Services of the Secretariat concerned with human rights

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