Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Rights of Peoples to Self-Determination

A/RES/52/112View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 111 Right of peoples to self-determination, published in 1998.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 subjects

Definition Mercenaries Public Information Self-Determination of Peoples Signatures, Accessions, Ratifications Treaties

What’s in this document?

9 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination concerning the use of mercenaries and mercenary-related activities to topple sovereign Governments and to violate the human rights of peoples and impede the exercise of self-determination despite resolution 51/83;³

³See A/52/495.

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;

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 appropriate 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 or threaten the territorial integrity and political unity of sovereign States or to promote secession or to fight the national liberation movements struggling against colonial or other forms of alien domination or occupation;

Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider taking the necessary action to sign or to ratify the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries;

Urges all States to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of his mandate;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as a matter of priority, to publicize the adverse effects of mercenary activities on the right to self-determination and, when requested and where necessary, to render advisory services to States that are affected by the activities of mercenaries;

Requests the Secretary-General to invite Governments to make proposals towards a clearer legal definition of mercenaries;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to report his findings on the use of mercenaries to undermine the right of peoples to self-determination, with specific recommendations, to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session;

Decides to consider at its fifty-third session the question of the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination under the item entitled "Rights of peoples to self-determination".

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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