United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/69/68

Sixty-ninth session

Agenda item 97 (e)

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 42/39 D of 30 November 1987 and 44/117 F of 15 December 1989, by which it established the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and renamed it the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, with headquarters in Kathmandu and with the mandate of providing, on request, substantive support for the initiatives and other activities mutually agreed upon by the Member States of the Asia-Pacific region for the implementation of measures for peace and disarmament, through appropriate utilization of available resources,

Welcoming the physical operation of the Regional Centre from Kathmandu in accordance with General Assembly resolution 62/52 of 5 December 2007,

Recalling the mandate of the Regional Centre to provide, on request, substantive support for the initiatives and other activities mutually agreed upon by the Member States of the Asia-Pacific region for the implementation of measures for peace and disarmament,

Taking note of the report of the Secretary-General, and expressing its appreciation to the Regional Centre for its important work in promoting confidence-building measures through the organization of meetings, conferences and workshops in the region, including the twelfth United Nations-Republic of Korea Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Issues, held on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, on 14 and 15 November 2013; the Second Asia Regional Meeting to Facilitate Dialogue on the Arms Trade Treaty, held in Manila on 26 and 27 November 2013; the workshop on the national implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, held in Kathmandu on 20 and 21 February 2014; the workshop on the national implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, held in Ulaanbaatar on 28 and 29 April 2014; the national capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, held in Nay Pyi Taw on 15 and 16 May 2014; and the international workshop on information and cybersecurity, held in Beijing on 5 and 6 June 2014,

Appreciating the timely execution by Nepal of its financial commitments for the physical operation of the Regional Centre,

1. Expresses its satisfaction at the activities carried out in the past year by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, and invites all States of the region to continue to support the activities of the Regional Centre, including by continuing to take part in them, where possible, and by proposing items for inclusion in the programme of activities of the Centre, in order to contribute to the implementation of measures for peace and disarmament;

2. Expresses its gratitude to the Government of Nepal for its cooperation and financial support, which has enabled the Regional Centre to operate from Kathmandu;

3. Expresses its appreciation to the Secretary-General and the Office for Disarmament Affairs of the Secretariat for providing necessary support with a view to ensuring the smooth operation of the Regional Centre from Kathmandu and to enabling the Centre to function effectively;

4. Appeals to Member States, in particular those within the Asia-Pacific region, as well as to international governmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations, to make voluntary contributions, the only resources of the Regional Centre, to strengthen its programme of activities and the implementation thereof;

5. Reaffirms its strong support for the role of the Regional Centre in the promotion of activities of the United Nations at the regional level to strengthen peace, stability and security among its Member States;

6. Underlines the importance of the Kathmandu process for the development of the practice of region-wide security and disarmament dialogues;

7. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its seventieth session on the implementation of the present resolution;

8. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventieth session, under the item entitled “Review and implementation of the Concluding Document of the Twelfth Special Session of the General Assembly”, the sub-item entitled “United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific”.

62nd plenary meeting 2 December 2014