69. Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special
economic assistance
At its twentieth session, in 1965, the General Assembly decided to consider the item entitled “Assistance in cases of natural disaster” (resolution 2034 (XX)).
At its forty-eighth session, in 1993, the General Assembly decided to consider the item entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance” and its sub-items in plenary meeting (resolution 48/162, annex II, sect. F).
Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel
The General Assembly has considered this question annually since its fifty-second session (resolutions 52/167, 53/87, 54/192, 55/175, 56/217, 57/155, 58/122, 59/211, 60/123, 61/133, 62/95, 63/138, 64/77, 65/132, 66/117, 67/85, 68/101 and 69/133).
At its seventieth session, the General Assembly strongly urged all States to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of national and international humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel. It requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Assembly at its seventy-first session a comprehensive and updated report on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel and on the implementation of the resolution (resolution 70/104).
Document for the seventy-first session: Report of the Secretary-General (resolution 70/104).
References for the seventieth session (agenda item 73)
Report of the Secretary-General on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel (A/70/383)
Draft resolutions A/70/L.25 and Add.1
Plenary meeting A/70/PV.72 (jointly with sub-items (a) to (c) and item 74)
Resolution 70/104
(a) Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations
The item entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian emergen cy assistance of the United Nations” was included in the agenda of the forty -sixth session of the General Assembly, in 1991, at the request of the Netherlands on behalf of the States members of the European Community (A/46/194). During that session, the Assembly adopted guiding principles and a framework for strengthening the coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance of the United Nations system (resolution 46/182). The Assembly has considered the question annually since then (resolutions 47/168, 48/57, 49/139 A, 50/57, 51/194, 52/168, 53/88, 54/95, 55/164, 56/107, 57/153, 58/114, 59/141, 60/124, 61/134, 62/94, 63/139, 64/76, 65/133, 66/119, 67/87, 68/102 and 69/135).
At its seventieth session, the General Assembly urged Member States to continue to seek to prevent, respond to, investigate and prosecute acts of sexual and gender -based violence in humanitarian emergencies in a strengthened manner and called upon Member States and relevant organizations to improve coordination, strengthen capacity, seek to ensure that humanitarian relief is provided in a way that mitigates the risk of gender-based violence and strengthen support services for victims and survivors of such violence beginning in the earliest stages of emergency response, taking into account their unique and specific needs resulting from the impact of such violence, and called for a more effective response in that regard. The Assembly encouraged closer cooperation between development and humanitarian actors, in coordination with Member States, to ensure that all relevant actors work together through a longer-term approach, and in that regard emphasized that transitions from humanitarian response to longer-term development need to be planned over a multi-year framework, as appropriate, and linked with development planning processes, while integrating key stakeholders, such as Governments, regional organizations and international financial institutions, as appropriate. The Assembly urged all countries to integrate into their respective national policies and development frameworks the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative Sustainable Development Goals and targets, and, inter alia, seeks to address the needs of the most vulnerable and to leave no one behind. The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to it at its seventy-first session, through the Economic and Social Council at its 2016 session, on progress made in strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations and on measures taken to address further the insufficient diversity in geographical representation and gender balance in the composition of the humanitarian staff of the Secretariat and other United Nations humanitarian agencies and to submit a
report to the Assembly on the detailed use of the Central Emergency Response Fund (resolution 70/106).
Documents for the seventy-first session: Reports of the Secretary-General:
(a) Outcome of the World Humanitarian Summit (resolution 69/135);
(b) Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations (resolution 70/106);
(c) Central Emergency Response Fund (resolution 70/106).
International cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters, from relief to development
The General Assembly introduced this item at its fifty-fourth session, at the request of the Group of 77 and China, and has considered it annually since then (resolutions 54/233, 55/163, 56/103, 57/152, 58/25, 59/212, 60/125, 61/131, 62/92, 63/141, 64/251, 65/264, 66/227, 67/231, 68/103 and 69/243).
At its seventieth session, the General Assembly encouraged Member States and th e United Nations to enhance the use of common risk analysis, including the use of the Index for Risk Management, to establish the evidence base for short -, medium- and long-term planning and joint strategies for disaster and climate risk management, capacity development and resilience-building, allowing for greater prioritization of resources where the risk is greatest. It also encouraged the United Nations and humanitarian and development organizations to work towards a common understanding of underlying risks, clarify roles and responsibilities according to respective mandates and establish joint objectives and programmes to strengthen coordination and coherence among short-, medium- and long-term activities to progressively reduce vulnerability and manage the risk of disasters and development setbacks over multi-year planning cycles, including through integrating risk management into national sustainable development plans and ensuring the connectivity of humanitarian plans with longer-term sustainable development priorities. The Assembly strongly encouraged all relevant actors to work to ensure a comprehensive, coherent, systematic and people-centred approach to managing risks, including through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the outcomes of the twenty-first session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) and the World Humanitarian Summit. The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue to improve the international response to natural disasters, to report thereon to the Assembly at its seventy-first session and to include in his report recommendations on how to ensure that humanitarian assistance is provided in ways supportive of the transition from relief to development (resolution 70/107).
Document for the seventy-first session: Report of the Secretary-General (resolution 70/107).
References for the seventieth session (agenda item 73 (a)) Reports of the Secretary-General:
Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations (A/70/77-E/2015/64)
Central Emergency Response Fund (A/70/96)
International cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters, from relief to development (A/70/324)
Draft resolutions A/70/L.29 and Add.1 and A/70/L.30 and Add.1 Plenary meeting A/70/PV.72 (jointly with item 73 and sub-items (b)
and (c) and item 74)
Resolutions 70/106 and 70/107
(b) Assistance to the Palestinian people
The Economic and Social Council, in its resolutions 2026 (LXI) of 4 August 1976 and 2100 (LXIII) of 3 August 1977, called upon the United Nations Development Programme, the specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system to intensify, in coordination with the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, their efforts in identifying the social and economic needs of the Palestinian people. It urged those agencies and organizations to consult and cooperate with the Palestine Liberation Organization in establishing concrete projects to improve the social and economic conditions of the Palestinian people.
The General Assembly considered this question at its thirty-third to sixty-ninth sessions (resolutions 33/147, 34/133, 35/111, 36/70, 37/134, 38/145, 39/224, 40/170, 41/181, 42/166, 43/178, 44/235, 45/183, 46/201, 47/170, 48/213, 49/21 N, 50/58 H, 51/150, 52/170, 53/89, 54/116, 55/173, 56/111, 57/147, 58/113, 59/56, 60/126, 61/135, 62/93, 63/140, 64/125, 65/134, 66/118, 67/86, 68/100 and 69/242).
At its seventieth session, the General Assembly stressed the importance of the work of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority and of the steps taken under the auspices of the Secretary-General to ensure the achievement of a coordinated mechanism for United Nations activities throughout the occupied territories. The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to the Assembly at its seventy-first session, through the Economic and Social Council, on the implementation of the resolution, containing an assessment of the assistance actually received by the Palestinian people and an assessment of the needs still unmet and specific proposals for responding effectively to them (resolution 70/108).
Document for the seventy-first session: Report of the Secretary-General (resolution 70/108).
References for the seventieth session (agenda item 73 (b)) Report of the Secretary-General A/70/76-E/2015/57
Draft resolution A/70/L.18 and Add.1
Plenary meetings A/70/PV.71 and 72 (jointly with item 73 and sub-items (a) and (c) and item 74)
Resolution 70/108
(d) Strengthening of international cooperation and coordination of efforts to study, mitigate and minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster
The General Assembly considered this question annually from its forty-fifth to forty-eighth sessions, biennially at its fiftieth to sixty-second sessions, and at its sixty-fifth session (resolutions 45/190, 46/150, 47/165, 48/206, 50/134, 52/172, 54/97, 56/109, 58/119, 60/14, 62/9 and 65/131).
At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly proclaimed the third decade after the Chernobyl disaster, 2006-2016, the Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development of the Affected Regions, to focus on achieving the goal of a return to normal life for the affected communities as far as was possible within that time frame, and welcomed the proposal by the United Nations Development Programme to coordinate the drafting of a United Nations action plan for Chernobyl recovery up to 2016 in order to implement the Decade (resolution 62/9).
At its sixty-eighth session, the General Assembly stressed the importance of the full implementation of the Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development of the Affected Regions. The Assembly requested the United Nations Coordinator of International Cooperation on Chernobyl to continue to take appropriate practical measures to strengthen coordination of the international efforts in that area. It requested the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in the implementation of the relevant resolutions and, through existing coordination mechanisms, in particular the Coordinator, to continue to maintain close cooperation and to lead the dialogue with the agencies of the United Nations system, Member States and regional and other relevant organizations on the future of inter-agency cooperation on the Chernobyl disaster, while implementing specific Chernobyl-related programmes and projects. The Assembly requested the President of the General Assembly to convene a special commemorative meeting of the Assembly in observance of the thirtieth anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe; the meeting was held on 26 April 2016.
The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it at its seventy-first session a report containing a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of the resolution and, in particular, of the action plan on Chernobyl to 2016 (resolution 68/99).
Document for the seventy-first session: Report of the Secretary-General (resolution 68/99).
References for the sixty-eighth session (agenda item 70 (d))
Report of the Secretary-General on optimizing the international effort to study, mitigate and minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster (A/68/498)
Draft resolution A/68/L.21 and Add.1
Plenary meetings A/68/PV.66 and 67 (jointly with sub-items (a) and (b) and item 71)
Resolution 68/99