Effects of Atomic Radiation

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 50 Effects of atomic radiation, published in 2020.

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.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2021

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2021	A/76/279	Operational cost implications of increased membership of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/75/91

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

Information Dissemination Ionizing Radiation Radiation Effects

What’s in this document?

26 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;

Commends the Scientific Committee and secretariat for its efforts to fulfil its mandate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and notes the decision of the Bureau to postpone the sixty-seventh session from July 2020 to November 2020, as a consequence of the pandemic, in order to allow for the fullest participation possible under these difficult circumstances;

Notes with appreciation the work of the Scientific Committee, takes note of the note by the Chair of the Scientific Committee to the General Assembly on the activities of the Committee since its sixty-sixth session,³ and the report on the implementation of its long-term strategic directions,⁴ 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;

³Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-fifth Session, Supplement No. 46 (A/75/46).

⁴Ibid., Seventy-fourth Session, Supplement No. 46 (A/74/46), chap. II, sect. C.

Welcomes the continuation of the ad hoc working group on effects and mechanisms and the ad hoc working group on sources and exposure to assist the Scientific Committee in developing its future programme of work on the effects of radiation exposure and the biological mechanisms by which they occur, as well as on global estimates of radiation sources and levels of exposure;

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 Committee’s evaluation of the implications of the information published since the 2013 report, and encourages the secretariat of the Committee to disseminate the findings of the Committee’s evaluation, in particular to the public;

Notes the three new evaluations, on second primary cancer after radiation therapy, on epidemiological studies of radiation and cancer and on public exposure due to ionizing radiation from natural and man-made sources;

Looks forward to the Scientific Committee’s evaluations of biological mechanisms relevant for the inference of cancer risk after low-dose radiation exposure, and the assessments of human exposures to medical ionizing radiation and occupational ionizing radiation;

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-sixth session;

Supports the Scientific Committee in continuing to conduct its programme of work of scientific review and assessment on behalf of the General Assembly, in particular its global survey of public radiation exposure, its assessments of second primary cancer after radiotherapy and its epidemiological studies of radiation and cancer, which are being 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-sixth 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, workers and the public, and urges Member States to take part in the Scientific Committee’s global survey of public 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;

Also welcomes the Scientific Committee’s outreach strategy for the period 2020–2024, in particular the enhancement of the website of the Committee and the publication of information for the general public in all the official languages of the United Nations, continues to encourage that consideration be given to publishing the website in all of those languages, and notes that the dissemination of the Committee’s findings and further enhancements to the website would depend on the financial and human resources made available to the secretariat;

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;

Urges the United Nations Environment Programme to ensure that future recruitment processes are conducted in an efficient, effective, timely and transparent manner;

Recalls the establishment of the post of Deputy Secretary in 2019, which replaced the previous post of Scientific Officer, allows for the deputization of the Deputy Secretary as Secretary as appropriate and assists in the avoidance of disruptions in staffing;

Notes that the appointment of a Deputy Secretary is not yet finalized due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and urges the United Nations Environment Programme to finalize this process as soon as possible so as to avoid further disruption to the important work of the secretariat and the Scientific Committee;

Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen support for the Scientific Committee within existing resources, particularly with regard to the increase of operational costs in the case of a further increase in membership, and to report to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth 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;

Recalls the invitation to Algeria, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Norway and the United Arab Emirates to designate one scientist to attend the sixty-seventh session of the Scientific Committee as an observer,⁵ and invites Algeria, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Norway and the United Arab Emirates to designate one scientist to attend the sixty-eighth session of the Scientific Committee as an observer, pursuant to paragraph 19 of General Assembly resolution 72/76 of 7 December 2017 and to the procedures referred to in paragraph 21 of Assembly resolution 73/261 of 22 December 2018;

⁵See resolution 74/81.

Also recalls the procedure for the possible further increases in membership of the Scientific Committee as adopted in paragraph 21 of General Assembly resolution 73/261, pursuant to paragraph 19 of Assembly resolution 66/70 of 9 December 2011;

Notes that, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report on the sixty-seventh session of the Scientific Committee will be presented together with the report on the sixty-eighth session of the Scientific Committee at the seventy-sixth session of the General Assembly.

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