United Nations
General Assembly
A/RES/55/57
Distr.: General
17 January 2001
Fifty-fifth session
Agenda item 103
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/55/591)]
55/57. International Year of Volunteers
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 52/17 of 20 November 1997, in which it proclaimed
the year 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers, and also recalling Economic
and Social Council resolution 1997/44 of 22 July 1997,
Recalling also the outcome document of the twenty-fourth special session of
the General Assembly, 1 entitled “World Summit for Social Development and
beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world”, held at
Geneva from 26 June to 1 July 2000, in which the General Assembly recommended
the promotion of the involvement of volunteers in social development, inter alia, by
encouraging Governments, taking into account the views of all actors, to develop
comprehensive strategies and programmes by raising public awareness about the
value and opportunities of voluntarism and by facilitating an enabling environment
for individuals and other actors of civil society to engage in, and the private sector
to support, voluntary activities,
Welcoming the decision of the Commission for Social Development, at its
thirty-eighth session, to include the subject of volunteering in the provisional agenda
for its thirty-ninth session, 2
Taking into account the valuable contribution of volunteering to both economic
and social development,
Bearing in mind that volunteering is one of the important ways in which
people participate in societal development,
1.
Welcomes the activities undertaken by States, intergovernmental
organizations, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and
the United Nations system for the promotion of volunteerism and, specifically, in
preparation for the observance of the International Year of Volunteers, and
encourages them to continue their efforts;
1
Resolution S-24/2, annex.
See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2000, Supplement No. 6 and corrigendum
(E/2000/26 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. B.
2
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