Effects of Atomic Radiation

A/RES/73/261View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 52 Effects of atomic radiation, published in 2019.

What else is in this group?

71 documents · 1956–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/75	Effects of atomic radiation	2,118	–
2024	A/RES/79/85	Effects of atomic radiation	2,050	–
2023	A/RES/78/71	Effects of atomic radiation	1,847	–
2022	A/RES/77/119	Effects of atomic radiation	1,915	–
2021	A/RES/76/75	Effects of atomic radiation	2,150	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

Information Dissemination Ionizing Radiation Radiation Effects

What’s in this document?

28 operative paragraphs

Commends the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation for the valuable contribution that it has been making since its inception to wider knowledge and understanding of the levels, effects and risks of exposure to ionizing radiation and for fulfilling its original mandate with scientific authority and independence of judgment;

Reaffirms the decision to maintain the present functions and independent role of the Scientific Committee;

Re-emphasizes the need for the Scientific Committee to hold regular sessions on an annual basis so that its report will be able to reflect the latest developments and findings in the field of ionizing radiation and thereby provide updated information for dissemination among all States;

Notes with appreciation the work of the Scientific Committee, and takes note of the report on its sixty-fifth session,2 including the report on the implementation of its long-term strategic directions, and encourages the Committee, over its coming sessions, to continue to work towards implementing strategies to support its long-term efforts to serve the scientific community, as well as wider audiences;

Welcomes the establishment of an ad hoc working group to assist the Scientific Committee in developing its future programme of work for the period 2020–2024 on the effects of radiation exposure and the biological mechanisms by which they occur;³

³Ibid., chap. II, sect. B.

Appreciates the arrangements made by the Scientific Committee for activities to follow up on its 2013 evaluation of the levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the nuclear accident after the 2011 great east-Japan earthquake and tsunami;

Looks forward to the Scientific Committee’s evaluations of selected health effects and of risk inference due to radiation exposure and its evaluation on lung cancer from exposure to radon, as their outcomes are relied upon by other organizations of the United Nations system;

Requests the Scientific Committee to continue its work, including its important activities to increase knowledge of the levels, effects and risks of ionizing radiation from all sources, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session;

Supports the intentions and plans of the Scientific Committee for conducting its programme of work of scientific review and assessment on behalf of the General Assembly, in particular its next periodic global surveys of radiation exposure, to be conducted in close cooperation with other relevant organizations, and requests the Committee to submit plans for its ongoing and future programme of work to the Assembly at its seventy-fourth session;

Welcomes developments in streamlining procedures for publishing the reports of the Scientific Committee electronically on its official website and as sales publications, and calls upon the secretariat to continue both to monitor the timely publication of those reports and to strive to publish them within the same calendar year as their approval;

Invites the Scientific Committee to continue its consultations with scientists and experts from interested Member States in the process of preparing its future scientific reports, and requests the secretariat to continue to facilitate such consultations;

Welcomes, in this context, the readiness of Member States to provide the Scientific Committee with relevant information on the levels and effects of ionizing radiation, and invites the Committee to analyse and give due consideration to such information, particularly in the light of its own findings;

Recalls the strategy of the Scientific Committee to improve data collection, encourages in this regard Member States, the organizations of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations concerned to provide further relevant data about levels, effects and risks of radiation exposure from various sources, which would greatly help in the preparation of future reports of the Committee to the General Assembly, and encourages the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization and other relevant organizations to further collaborate with the secretariat on arrangements for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on radiation exposures of patients, workers and the public;

Welcomes the use and ongoing development by the secretariat of an online platform for collecting data on the exposure of patients and workers, and urges Member States to take part in the Scientific Committee’s global surveys of radiation exposure and to nominate a national contact person to facilitate coordination of the collection and submission of data on the exposure of patients, workers and the public within the country;

Takes note of the Scientific Committee’s outreach strategy for the coming years, in particular the enhancement of the website of the Committee and the publication of informative leaflets and posters in all the official languages of the United Nations, and continues to encourage that consideration be given to publishing the website in all of those languages;

Requests the United Nations Environment Programme to continue, within existing resources, to service the Scientific Committee and to disseminate its findings to Member States, the scientific community and the public and to ensure that the administrative measures in place are appropriate, including clear roles and responsibilities of the various actors, so that the secretariat is able to adequately and efficiently service the Committee in a predictable and sustainable manner and effectively facilitate the use of the invaluable expertise offered to the Committee by its members in order that the Committee may discharge the responsibilities and mandate entrusted to it by the General Assembly;

Regrets that the United Nations Environment Programme secretariat has not appointed a new Secretary of the Scientific Committee in a timely manner, thereby jeopardizing continuity in the Committee secretariat, and insists that all steps be taken to ensure such continuity and that any ongoing selection process is expedited and managed in a transparent manner;

Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen support for the Scientific Committee within existing resources, particularly with regard to the deputization of the Secretary of the Committee, the avoidance of disruptions in staffing and the increase in operational costs in the case of a further increase in membership, and to report to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session on these issues;

Encourages Member States in a position to do so to make voluntary contributions to the general trust fund established by the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and also to make contributions in kind, in order to support the work of the Scientific Committee, and the dissemination of its findings, in a sustainable manner;

Invites Algeria, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Norway and the United Arab Emirates to designate one scientist to attend the sixty-sixth session of the Scientific Committee as an observer, pursuant to paragraphs 19 and 20 of General Assembly resolution 72/76 of 7 December 2017 and the procedures referred to in paragraph 21 below;

Adopts, pursuant to paragraph 19 of General Assembly resolution 66/70 of 9 December 2011, a procedure for possible further increases in the membership of the Scientific Committee consisting of the following provisions:

Interested Member States may avail themselves of the suggested framework of criteria and indicators for membership contained in the report of the Secretary-General on membership of the Scientific Committee and the financial implications of increased membership;⁴

⁴A/66/524, para. 16.

States Members of the United Nations may express interest in membership in the Scientific Committee at any time by addressing a note verbale to that effect to the Secretary-General;

Every 10 years, the Secretary-General shall refer to the General Assembly a list of Member States that have expressed interest in membership in the Scientific Committee, the first such list having been provided in 2017⁵ and the next list to be provided in 2027;

⁵A/72/557.

After having been referred by the Secretary-General in accordance with subparagraph (c) above, each Member State shall be invited to designate a scientist as an observer to the annual session of the Scientific Committee in the year following its referral. During their first year as observers attending the annual session, observer scientists shall prepare an outline of the expertise and potential contribution of their State to the work of the Committee;

The General Assembly, in accordance with subparagraph (g) below and with due consideration of the advice of the Scientific Committee, shall decide on the adoption of observers as States members of the Committee in the fourth year. The advice shall be based on due consideration of a fair degree of participation in accordance with the Secretary-General’s suggested framework of criteria and indicators for membership;4

On the fourth year after each round of accession of members, the Secretary-General shall report to the General Assembly on the experience of the increase in membership of the Scientific Committee with regard to its effectiveness, quality of work and equitable geographical distribution, on the financial impact of the recent increase in membership and on financial implications for future expansion;

Any further increases in membership shall occur only after financial aspects are fully reviewed and if the secretariat of the Scientific Committee is appropriately strengthened, in accordance with conclusions drawn in previous reports of the Secretary-General.⁶

⁶Including A/63/478, A/66/524 and A/69/350.

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