The General Assembly,
 
      Recalling its resolutions 49/150 of 23 December 1994 and 50/138 of 21
December 1995,
 
      Recalling also all of its relevant resolutions in which, inter alia, it
condemned any State that 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 further 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 which 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 as a means of impeding
the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination concerning the use
of mercenaries and mercenary-related activities to topple sovereign
Governments and to violate the human rights of peoples and impede the exercise
of self-determination despite resolution 50/138;
 
      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 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 that 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 that are affected by the activities of
mercenaries;
 
      7.    Requests the Special Rapporteur to report, with specific
recommendations, his findings on the use of mercenaries to undermine the right
of peoples to self-determination to the General Assembly at its fifty-second
session.