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Decides to convene the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which shall be of two weeks' duration and shall have the highest possible level of participation, to coincide with World Environment Day, on 5 June 1992;
2
Accepts with deep appreciation the generous offer of the Government of Brazil to act as host to the Conference;
3
Affirms that the Conference should elaborate strategies and measures to halt and reverse the effects of environmental degradation in the context of increased national and international efforts to promote sustainable and environmentally sound development in all countries;
4
Affirms also that the protection and enhancement of the environment are major issues that affect the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world;
5
Affirms further that the promotion of economic growth in developing countries is essential to address problems of environmental degradation;
6
Affirms the importance of a supportive international economic climate conducive to sustained economic growth and development in all countries for the protection and sound management of the environment;
7
Reaffirms that, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the applicable principles of international law, States have the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their environmental policies, and also reaffirms their responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction and to play their due role in preserving and protecting the global and regional environment in accordance with their capacities and specific responsibilities;
8
Affirms the responsibility of States, in accordance with national legislation and applicable international law, for the damage to the environment and natural resources caused by activities within their jurisdiction or control through transboundary interference:
9
Notes that the largest part of the current emission of pollutants into the environment, including toxic and hazardous wastes, originates in developed countries, and therefore recognizes that those countries have the main responsibility for combating such pollution:
10
Stresses that large industrial enterprises, including transnational corporations. arc frequently the repositories of scarce technical skills for the preservation and enhancement of the en vironmcnt, I hat they conduct act ivi tics in sectors that have an impact on the environment and. to that extent, have specific responsibilities and that, in this
context, efforts need to be encouraged and mobilized to protect and enhance the environment in all countries;
Reaffirms that the serious external indebtedness of developing countries and other countries with serious debt-servicing problems has to be addressed in an efficient and urgent manner in order to enable those countries to contribute fully and in accordance with their capacities and responsibilities to global efforts to protect and enhance the environment;
12
Affirms that, in the light of the foregoing, the following environmental issues, which are not listed in any particular order of priority, are among those of major concern in maintaining the quality of the Earth's environment and especially in achieving environmentally sound and sustainable development in all countries:
a
Protection of the atmosphere by combating climate change, depletion of the ozone layer and transboundary air pollution;
b
Protection of the quality and supply of freshwater resources;
c
Protection of the oceans and all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and coastal areas and the protection, rational use and development of their living resources;
d
Protection and management of land resources by, inter alia, combating deforestation, desertification and drought;
e
Conservation of biological diversity;
f
Environmentally sound management of biotechnology;
g
Environmentally sound management of wastes, particularly hazardous wastes, and of toxic chemicals, as well as prevention of illegal international traffic in toxic and dangerous products and wastes;
h
Improvement of the living and working environment of the poor in urban slums and rural areas, through the eradication ofpoverty by, inter alia, implementing integrated rural and urban development programmes, as well as taking other appropriate measures at all levels necessary to stem the degradation of the environment;
1
Protection of human health conditions and improvement of the quality of life;
13
Emphasizes the need to strengthen international co-operation for the management of the environment to ensure its protection and enhancement and the need to explore the issue of benefits derived from activities, including research and development, related to the protection and development of biological diversity;
I 4.
Reaffirms the need to strengthen international cooperation, particularly between developed and developing countries, in research and development and the utilization of environmentally sound technologies;
15
Decides that the Conference, in addressing environmental issues in the developmental context, should have the following objectives:
a
To examine the state of the environment and changes that have occurred since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in 1972, and since the adoption of such international agreements as the Plan of Action to Combat Descrtification, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer,
adopted on 22 March 1985, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, adopted on 16 September 1987, taking into account the actions taken by all countries and intergovernmental organizations to protect and enhance the environment;
V.
~he I~ I /hid. sects. 11 and Ill.
1:' A/~~/25h-F/l'l~'l/hh and Cnrr.l and Add. I and 2.
1'' Rcrorr of rhe l!rurcd Sarwrn Confcrcrlcc rhe llunwr1 fnl"lrtliiiii<"TII. Srocl.holm. 5-/(J June /972 (llnilcd Nali<>m puhlicalinn, S.1k' :"n. E 7.'.11 A. I~ and e<>rngcndum). chap. I.
(11) Suffslement No. 25 and corrigendum (A/42/25 and Corr.l). annex I.
