Humanitarian and Special Economic Assistance to Serbia and Montenegro

Calls upon all States, regional organizations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other relevant bodies to continue to provide assistance to alleviate the needs of refugees and internally displaced persons, bearing in mind in particular the special situation of women, children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups, and to assist financially and otherwise in seeking durable solutions for a safe return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their places of origin, or for settlement at their place of refuge for those who want to integrate locally, in cooperation with the local authorities, with a successive transition to development projects aimed at durable solutions to those questions;

Encourages the Council of Ministers of Serbia and Montenegro in its efforts to ensure a smooth transition from relief to long-term development, and calls upon all States, regional organizations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other relevant bodies to offer support for those efforts;

Urges the relevant government authorities in Serbia and Montenegro to develop, with the assistance of the United Nations system, national policies for comprehensive durable solutions for internally displaced persons based on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement,³ and in that regard invites the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo to strengthen its efforts, within its mandate, in coordination with relevant government authorities in Serbia and Montenegro, for the establishment of the necessary conditions for the safe and sustainable return of internally displaced persons;

Calls upon the Secretary-General, as well as development agencies, to continue to mobilize the timely provision of international development assistance to Serbia and Montenegro, and welcomes efforts by Serbia and Montenegro to improve governance and institutional capabilities in order to use aid more effectively;

Urges development partners to assist in capacity-building, institution-building and local employment generation in their programmes and to train and employ local staff to the maximum extent possible, welcomes work by Serbia and Montenegro to create an enabling environment for its private sector, including the development of a financial sector that provides services, inter alia, to microenterprises and to small and medium-sized enterprises and to their households, and encourages continued work on regulatory reform, transparency, accountability, good governance and the rule of law, all of which support sustainable development;

Also urges Serbia and Montenegro and its development partners to support and strengthen initiatives that contribute to the enhancement of social capital in areas such as health and education, emphasizing, inter alia, the development of capacity to improve the quality of and access to health care and education;

Requests the United Nations and the specialized agencies to continue their efforts to assess needs, in cooperation with the Council of Ministers of Serbia and Montenegro, relevant international and regional organizations and bodies and interested States, with a view to ensuring an effective and smooth transition from relief to longer-term development assistance to Serbia and Montenegro, taking into account the work already carried out in this field and the need to avoid duplication and the overlapping of efforts;

Requests the Secretary-General, bearing in mind the recommendation contained in his report,1 to submit to it at its sixty-first session, under the item entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance”, a final report on the implementation of the present resolution.