A/RES/71/47
United Nations
Distr.: General
12 December 2016
General Assembly
Seventy-first session
Agenda item 98 (oo)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 5 December 2016
[on the report of the First Committee (A/71/450)]
71/47.
Humanitarian pledge for the prohibition and elimination
of nuclear weapons
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 70/48 of 7 December 2015,
Ever mindful of the unacceptable harm that victims of nuclear weapon
explosions and nuclear testing have experienced, and recognizing that the rights and
needs of victims have not yet been adequately addressed,
Understanding that the immediate, medium-term and long-term consequences
of a nuclear weapon explosion would be significantly graver than was understood in
the past and would not be constrained by national borders but have regional or even
global effects, potentially threatening the survival of humanity,
Recognizing the complexity of and relationship between these consequences
for, inter alia, health, the environment, infrastructure, food security, climate,
development, social cohesion, displacement and the global economy, which would
be systemic and potentially irreversible,
Aware that the risk of a nuclear weapon explosion is significantly greater than
previously assumed and is indeed increasing with increased proliferation, the
lowering of the technical threshold for nuclear weapon capability, the ongoing
modernization of nuclear weapon arsenals in States possessing nuclear weapons and
the role that is attributed to nuclear weapons in the nuclear doctrines of such States,
Cognizant that the risk of the use of nuclear weapons, with its unacceptable
consequences, can be avoided only when all nuclear weapons have been eliminated,
Emphasizing that the consequences of a nuclear weapon explosion and the
risks associated with nuclear weapons concern the security of all humanity and that
all States share the responsibility to prevent any use of nuclear weapons,
Emphasizing also that the scope of the consequences of a nuclear weapon
explosion and the associated risks raise profound moral and ethical questions that go
beyond debates about the legality of nuclear weapo ns,
Mindful that no national or international capacity exists that would adequately
respond to the human suffering and humanitarian harm that would result from a
nuclear weapon explosion in a populated area, and that such capacity most likely
will never exist,
16-21055 (E)
*1621055*
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