The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 44/135 of 15 December 1989, 45/180 of 21 December 1990, 46/118 and 46/111 of 17 December 1991 and 47/127 of 18 December 1992, and bearing in mind all relevant resolutions of the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on Human Rights,
Considering that the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the basic purposes of the United Nations enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and of high importance to the Organization,
Noting that in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, held at Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993, the importance of strengthening the Centre for Human Rights of the Secretariat is stressed,
Bearing in mind that the Secretary-General, in his reports on the work of the Organization for 1992 and 1993, stated that "the Charter of the United Nations places the promotion of human rights as one of our priority objectives, along with promoting development and preserving international peace and security", and that "in the course of 1993, the activities of the Centre for Human Rights at Geneva underwent a significant expansion in the five main areas of its work",
Noting that the difficult financial situation of the Centre has created considerable obstacles to the implementation of the various procedures and mechanisms, negatively influenced the servicing by the Secretariat of the bodies concerned and impaired the quality and precision of the reporting,
1. Supports the efforts of the Secretary-General to enhance the role and importance of the Centre for Human Rights of the Secretariat as the coordinating unit, within the United Nations system, of bodies dealing with the promotion and the protection of human rights;
2. Requests the Secretary-General to make additional proposals to increase further the resources of the human rights programme in 1994-1995, so as to enable the Centre fully to discharge its duties implementing all the mandates assigned to it by the General Assembly and other legislative bodies;
3. Welcomes the recommendations of the World Conference on Human Rights concerning the strengthening of the Centre, as contained in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action;
4. Takes note of the recommendation of the Committee for Programme and Coordination that the General Assembly approve the programme narratives of section 21 of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1994-1995;
5. Takes note also of the statement by the Secretary-General in his report concerning the implications of organizational changes in the Secretariat that he would propose to use the remaining vacant posts now available in the Secretariat in the light of new initiatives and emerging mandates and priorities;
6. Requests the Secretary-General and Member States to ensure that appropriate additional resources from within the existing and future regular budgets of the United Nations are accorded to the Centre to enable it to carry out, in full and on time, the mandates contained in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action without diverting resources from development programmes and activities of the United Nations;
7. Also requests the Secretary-General to submit an interim report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fiftieth session and a final report to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session on the strengthening of the Centre and on the measures taken to implement the present resolution.
85th plenary meeting
20 December 1993
