Plan International - Girls' Rights Platform - Girls' rights are human rights: Positioning girls at the heart of the international agenda

United Nations A/RES/61/179 General Assembly Distr.: General 6 March 2007 Sixty-first session Agenda item 98 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 20 December 2006 [on the report of the Third Committee (A/61/444)] 61/179. International cooperation in the prevention, combating and elimination of kidnapping and in providing assistance to victims The General Assembly, Concerned at the increase in the offence of kidnapping in various countries of the world and at the harmful effects of that crime on victims and their families, and determined to support measures to assist and protect them and to promote their recovery, Reiterating that the kidnapping of persons under any circumstances and for any purpose constitutes a serious crime and a violation of individual freedom that undermines human rights, Concerned at the growing tendency of organized criminal groups and also of terrorist groups in certain circumstances to resort to kidnapping, especially for the purpose of extortion, as a method of accumulating capital with a view to consolidating their criminal operations and undertaking other illegal activities, regardless of their purposes, such as trafficking in firearms and drugs and moneylaundering, Convinced that any linkage of various illegal activities involving kidnapping poses an additional threat to quality of life and hinders economic and social development, Convinced also that the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 1 provides a legal framework when necessary for international cooperation with a view to preventing, combating and eradicating kidnapping, Recalling its resolution 59/154 of 20 December 2004 entitled “International cooperation in the prevention, combating and elimination of kidnapping and in providing assistance to victims”, in which it requested the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, to prepare a manual, for use by competent authorities, of proven and promising practices in the fight against kidnapping, _______________ 1 06-50517 Resolution 55/25, annex I.