The General Assembly,
 
     Recalling its resolution 49/150 of 23 December 1994,
 
     Recalling also all of its relevant resolutions, in which, inter alia, it
condemned any State which permitted or tolerated the recruitment, financing,
training, assembly, transit and use of mercenaries with the objective of
overthrowing the Governments of States Members of the United Nations,
especially those of developing countries, or of fighting against national
liberation movements, and recalling also the relevant resolutions of the
Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Organization of
African Unity,
 
     Reaffirming the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations concerning the strict observance of the principles of sovereign
equality, political independence, territorial integrity of States and self-
determination of peoples,
 
     Alarmed and concerned about the danger that the activities of mercenaries
constitute to peace and security in developing countries, particularly in
Africa and in small States, where democratically elected Governments have been
overthrown by mercenaries or through mercenary international criminal
activities,
 
     Deeply concerned about the loss of life, the substantial damage to
property and the negative effects on the polity and economies of affected
countries resulting from mercenary aggression and criminal activities,
 
     Convinced that it is necessary for Member States to ratify the
International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training
of Mercenaries, adopted by the General Assembly in 1989, and to develop and
maintain international cooperation among States for the prevention,
prosecution and punishment of mercenary activities,
 
     1.   Takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission
on Human Rights on the use of mercenaries and mercenary-related activities to
topple sovereign Governments and to undermine the rights of peoples to self-
determination despite resolution 49/150;
 
     2.   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;
 
     3.   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 necessary 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 of any State or threaten the territorial integrity
and political unity of sovereign States, or to promote secession or fight the
national liberation movements struggling against colonial or other forms of
alien domination or occupation;
 
     4.   Calls upon all States which have not yet done so to consider taking
necessary action to sign or to ratify the International Convention against the
Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries;
 
     5.   Urges all States to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur in the
fulfilment of his mandate;
 
     6.   Requests the Centre for Human Rights of the Secretariat, as a matter
of priority, to publicize the adverse effects of mercenary activities on the
right to self-determination and, when requested where necessary, to render
advisory services to States which are affected by the activities of
mercenaries;
 
     7.   Requests the Special Rapporteur to report, with specific
recommendations, his findings on the new elements identified in the use of
mercenaries to undermine the rights of peoples to self-determination to the
General Assembly at its fifty-first session.