United Nations
A/RES/56/116
General Assembly
Distr.: General
18 January 2002
Fifty-sixth session
Agenda item 108
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/56/572)]
56/116. United Nations Literacy Decade: education for all
The General Assembly,
Recalling that in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2 and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child 3 the right of every individual to education is recognized as
inalienable,
Recalling also its resolutions 42/104 of 7 December 1987, by which it
proclaimed 1990 as International Literacy Year, and 54/122 of 17 December 1999,
in which it requested the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the DirectorGeneral of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and
Member States and with other relevant organizations and bodies, to submit to the
General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session a proposal for a United Nations literacy
decade, with a draft plan of action and possible time frame for such a decade, on the
basis of the outcome of the World Education Forum and the special session of the
General Assembly for the five-year review of the World Summit for Social
Development,
Reaffirming its resolution 49/184 of 23 December 1994, by which it
proclaimed the ten-year period beginning on 1 January 1995 the United Nations
Decade for Human Rights Education and appealed to all Governments to intensify
their efforts to eradicate illiteracy and to direct education towards the full
development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for all
human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Taking note of Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/29 of 20 April
2001 on the right to education, 4
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1
Resolution 217 A (III).
See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.
3
Resolution 44/25, annex.
4
See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2001, Supplement No. 3 (E/2001/23), chap. II,
sect. A.
2
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