The General Assembly,
 
      Recalling its resolution 47/190 of 22 December 1992, in which it decided
to convene, not later than 1997, a special session for the purpose of an
overall review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21,
 
      Reaffirming its resolution 50/113 of 20 December 1995, as the agreed
basis that determines the modalities for the preparations for the special
session, including the relevant role of the Commission on Sustainable
Development, as the functional commission of the Economic and Social Council
mandated to follow up the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, as well as the role of other relevant organizations and bodies of
the United Nations system,
 
      Strongly reaffirming that the special session for the overall review and
appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21 will be undertaken on the basis
of and in full respect of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,
 
      Taking note of the progress report of the Secretary-General on the state
of preparations for the 1997 special session, and taking into account the
views and concerns expressed by delegations to the Commission on Sustainable
Development at its fourth session, the Economic and Social Council at its
substantive session of 1996 and the Second Committee of the General Assembly
at its fifty-first session,
 
      1.    Decides to convene the special session envisaged in its resolution
47/190 for a duration of one week, from 23 to 27 June 1997, at the highest
political level of participation;
 
      2.    Decides also that the Commission on Sustainable Development will
devote the forthcoming meeting of its Ad Hoc Open-ended Inter-sessional
Working Group, to be held from 24 February to 7 March 1997, to preparing for
the special session, and that the Commission will devote its fifth session, to
be held from 7 to 25 April 1997 as a negotiating meeting, to final
preparations for the special session for the overall review and appraisal of
the implementation of Agenda 21;
 
      3.    Recognizes the important contributions made by major groups,
including non-governmental organizations, at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development and in the implementation of its recommendations,
and the need for their effective participation in preparations for the special
session, as well as the need to ensure appropriate arrangements, taking into
account the practice and experience gained at the Conference, for their
substantive contributions to and active involvement in the preparatory
meetings and the special session, and in that context invites the President of
the General Assembly, in consultation with Member States, to propose to Member
States appropriate modalities for the effective involvement of major groups in
the special session;
 
      4.    Decides to invite States members of the specialized agencies which
are not members of the United Nations to participate in the work of the
special session in the capacity of observers;
 
      5.    Stresses that there should be no attempt to renegotiate Agenda 21,
the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Non-legally Binding
Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the
Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests
or other internationally recognized intergovernmental agreements in the field
of environment and sustainable development, and that discussions at both the
preparatory meetings and the special session should focus on the fulfilment of
commitments and the further implementation of Agenda 21 and related
post-Conference outcomes;
 
      6.    Requests the Secretariat to provide all relevant reports called
for in General Assembly resolution 50/113, including all other reports related
to the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, for consideration by the Ad Hoc Open-ended Inter-sessional
Working Group of the Commission on Sustainable Development and by the
Commission at its fifth session, in accordance with the six-week rule and
preferably not later than 15 January 1997;
 
      7.    Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that preparations for the
comprehensive report are conducted in accordance with paragraph 13 (a), (b),
(c) and (d) of Assembly resolution 50/113;
 
      8.    Invites the Secretary-General to include in the reports requested
in Assembly resolution 50/113 for the preparation of the special session
information on the application of the principles contained in the Rio
Declaration, and invites the Governing Council of the United Nations
Environment Programme to include in its report to the General Assembly at its
special session information and views on ways to address, in a forward-looking
manner, national, regional and international application of these principles
and the implementation of Agenda 21 in the interrelated issues of environment
and development;
 
      9.    Decides to consider at its special session, inter alia, the
application of the principles of the Rio Declaration at all levels - national,
regional and international - and to make relevant recommendations thereon;
 
      10.   Requests that other contributions to the special session, in
addition to those identified in its resolution 50/113, include submissions
from relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations, including the Ad
Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests of the Commission on Sustainable
Development and the Global Environmental Facility, information on the outcomes
of United Nations conferences held since the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, such as the Programme of Action for the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, regional and
subregional conferences, summits and other inter-sessional meetings on
sustainable development organized by countries, and information on the
activities of relevant United Nations conventions on the environment and
development and the global freshwater assessment, and that account be taken of
the activities organized by major groups, including business and industry and
non-governmental organizations;
 
      11.   Requests the Secretary-General, in the report on cross-sectoral
issues of Agenda 21 for the special session, to give special consideration,
without prejudice to other priority issues that may be identified in the
preparatory process, to combating poverty and to health, financial resources
and mechanisms, education, science, transfer of technology, consumption and
production patterns, trade, environment and sustainable development, major
groups, demographic dynamics, capacity-building and decision-making;
 
      12.   Also requests the Secretary-General, in the reports for the
special session, to give consideration, where appropriate and without
prejudice to other priority issues that may be identified in the preparatory
process, to linkages between the cross-sectoral issues of Agenda 21 and
relevant sectoral issues;
 
      13.   Welcomes the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat II), held at Istanbul from 3 to 14 June 1996, and its
relevance to the field of sustainable development, calls for effective
interaction and exchange of information on work carried out by the Commission
on Sustainable Development and the Commission on Human Settlements, and
invites the Commission on Human Settlements to make a contribution to the
special session in connection with the implementation of the Habitat Agenda
adopted in Istanbul;
 
      14.   Invites Governments and regional organizations to cooperate with
the Secretary-General in preparing country profiles for review at the fifth
session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, as envisaged in
paragraph 13 of General Assembly resolution 50/113;
 
      15.   Also invites Governments to assist developing countries,
particularly the least developed among them, in participating fully in the
special session and its preparatory process, and to make timely contributions
to the Trust Fund for Support of the Work of the Commission on Sustainable
Development;
 
      16.   Requests the Secretary-General to enhance the public information
programme of the United Nations so as to raise global awareness in a balanced
manner, in all countries, of both the special session and the work undertaken
by the United Nations in the follow-up to the Conference, and invites all
Governments to promote widespread dissemination, at all levels, of the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development, and to make voluntary
contributions to support the public outreach activities of the United Nations
for the special session;
 
      17.   Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-second
session the sub-item entitled "Special session for the purpose of an overall
review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21", and requests the
Secretary-General to submit to it at that session a report on the special
session.