The General Assembly,
 
      Conscious of the obligations resulting from Article 102 of the Charter
of the United Nations and the importance of treaties in the development of
international law and the international legal order,
 
      Noting that the recent expansion of the membership of the Organization,
combined with an increase in international treaty-making activity, has led to
the growth in the volume of work carried out by the Treaty Section of the
Office of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat and contributed to the accumulation
of unpublished treaties,
 
      Recognizing, consistent with the obligation contained in Article 102 of
the Charter, the importance of the expeditious processing, registration and
publication of treaties and treaty-related actions,
 
      Welcoming the range of measures already taken by the Treaty Section to
expedite the publication of the United Nations Treaty Series and to provide
electronic access to the publication Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the
Secretary-General through the Internet,
 
      Desirous that all efforts are made to ensure that the Treaty Section
develops a comprehensive electronic database containing all treaty depositary
and registration information,
 
      Noting the steps taken by the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on
Informatics established by the Economic and Social Council to harmonize and
improve United Nations information systems for optimal utilization and
accessibility by all Member States,
 
      Noting also that the existing and proposed Internet access to United
Nations treaty publications is and will be in addition to the hard-copy
printed versions of such publications,
 
      1.    Welcomes the statement of objective of developing a comprehensive
electronic database containing all depositary and registration information and
disseminating electronically treaties and treaty law-related information from
the database, including through on-line access, as contained in the report of
the Secretary-General on the United Nations Decade of International Law;
 
      2.    Recalls the request of the Legal Counsel that in order to expedite
the registration and publication of treaties all Member States should submit
treaty texts in disk or other electronic format in addition to the certified
print copy;
 
      3.    Requests the Secretary-General to continue to give priority to the
implementation of the computerization programme in the Treaty Section of the
Office of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat;
 
      4.    Calls upon the Secretary-General to ensure that all necessary
support is provided to expedite the publication of the printed version of the
United Nations Treaty Series through the prompt provision of the necessary
equipment and translation services;
 
      5.    Endorses the proposed Internet dissemination of the United Nations
Treaty Series, following the same rules applicable to the printed version of
the publication, in addition to the current access to the Multilateral
Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, and recognizes that Internet
access to treaties and treaty law-related information is particularly valuable
in countries where the cost of maintaining complete collections of treaties in
bound volume form is relatively high;
 
      6.    Also endorses the Secretary-General's exploring of the economic
and practical feasibility of recovering the costs of providing such Internet
access to the United Nations Treaty Series and the Multilateral Treaties
Deposited with the Secretary-General, subject to Member States, organizations
of the United Nations system, other international organizations and other
non-commercial users not being charged a user fee, and presenting his findings
to Member States;
 
      7.    Invites the Secretary-General to consider the possibility of
translating the list of titles of treaties appearing in the publication
Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General into the other
official languages of the United Nations and disseminating such lists via the
Internet, and to submit a report to the General Assembly at its fifty-second
session; 
 
      8.    Invites the specialized agencies of the United Nations system,
other international organizations and Member States with depositary functions
for multilateral treaties to use their best endeavours to provide Internet
access to treaties and treaty law-related information as soon as practicable.