United Nations
A/RES/61/139
General Assembly
Distr.: General
30 January 2007
Sixty-first session
Agenda item 41
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2006
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/61/436)]
61/139. Assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons
in Africa
The General Assembly,
Recalling the Organization of African Unity Convention governing the specific
aspects of refugee problems in Africa of 1969 1 and the African Charter on Human
and Peoples’ Rights, 2
Reaffirming that the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 3
together with the 1967 Protocol thereto, 4 as complemented by the Organization of
African Unity Convention of 1969, remains the foundation of the international
refugee protection regime in Africa,
Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General 5 and the United
1.
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; 6
Notes the need for African States to address resolutely the root causes of
2.
all forms of forced displacement in Africa and to foster peace, stability and
prosperity throughout the African continent so as to forestall refugee flows;
Notes with great concern that, despite all of the efforts made so far by the
3.
United Nations, the African Union and others, the situation of refugees and
displaced persons in Africa remains precarious, and calls upon States and other
parties to armed conflict to observe scrupulously the letter and spirit of international
humanitarian law, bearing in mind that armed conflict is one of the principal causes
of forced displacement in Africa;
Welcomes decision EX.CL/Dec.284 (IX) on the situation of refugees,
4.
returnees and displaced persons in Africa, adopted by the Executive Council of the
African Union at its ninth ordinary session, held at Banjul on 28 and 29 June 2006; 7
_______________
1
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1001, No. 14691.
Ibid., vol. 1520, No. 26363.
3
Ibid., vol. 189, No. 2545.
4
Ibid., vol. 606, No. 8791.
5
A/61/301.
6
Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-first Session, Supplement No. 12 (A/61/12).
7
See African Union, document EX.CL/Dec.278–314 (IX).
2
06-50277