A/HRC/RES/37/15
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
9 April 2018
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-seventh session
26 February–23 March 2018
Agenda item 3
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council
on 22 March 2018
37/15.
High-level intersessional discussion celebrating the centenary of Nelson
Mandela
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations,
Guided also by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action, and recognizing that 2018 marks their seventieth
and twenty-fifth anniversaries respectively,
Recalling the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Recalling also General Assembly resolution 64/13 of 10 November 2009, in which
the Assembly decided to designate 18 July as Nelson Mandela International Day,
Taking note of the Declaration on the Centenary of Nelson Mandela, made by the
Assembly of the African Union at its thirtieth ordinary session, and the decision of the
Assembly at its twenty-second ordinary session to declare 2014–2024 the Madiba Nelson
Mandela Decade of Reconciliation in Africa,
Recalling Nelson Mandela’s lifelong struggle for freedom, human rights and human
dignity, equality and justice, as well as his conviction and incarceration in 1963,
Recalling also that, upon his release in 1990, after serving 27 years in prison, Nelson
Mandela contributed to the transition of South Africa to democracy, and that he gave
selfless service as an international statesman to the cause of human rights,
Recognizing Nelson Mandela as the embodiment of human rights and a champion of
the global poor and their dignity, as recognized by the General Assembly and the Assembly
of the African Union,
1.
Decides to convene a high-level intersessional discussion celebrating the
centenary of Nelson Mandela, on his life and legacy, in the context of promoting and
protecting human rights through social justice, reconciliation and democratic ideals, on 27
April 2018, the day that, in 1994, Mandela and millions of South Africans cast their votes
for the first time in a fully representative democratic election;
2.
Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to invite
to that discussion, for their participation, eminent persons who worked with Nelson
GE.18-05243(E)