United Nations
A/RES/57/85
General Assembly
Distr.: General
9 January 2003
Fifty-seventh session
Agenda item 66 (t)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[on the report of the First Committee (A/57/510)]
57/85.
Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International
Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of
Nuclear Weapons
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 49/75 K of 15 December 1994, 51/45 M of
10 December 1996, 52/38 O of 9 December 1997, 53/77 W of 4 December 1998,
54/54 Q of 1 December 1999, 55/33 X of 20 November 2000 and 56/24 S of
29 November 2001,
Convinced that the continuing existence of nuclear weapons poses a threat to
all humanity and that their use would have catastrophic consequences for all life on
Earth, and recognizing that the only defence against a nuclear catastrophe is the
total elimination of nuclear weapons and the certainty that they will never be
produced again,
Reaffirming the commitment of the international community to the goal of the
total elimination of nuclear weapons and the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free
world,
Mindful of the solemn obligations of States parties, undertaken in article VI of
the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1 particularly to pursue
negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nucleararms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament,
Recalling the principles and objectives for nuclear non-proliferation and
disarmament adopted at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to
the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 2
Emphasizing the unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States to
accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear
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1
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 729, No. 10485.
1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons, Final Document, Part I (NPT/CONF.1995/32 (Part I) and Corr.2), annex, decision 2.
2
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