A/RES/58/51
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
17 December 2003
Fifty-eighth session
Agenda item 73 (d)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 8 December 2003
[on the report of the First Committee (A/58/462)]
58/51.
Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: a new agenda
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 53/77 Y of 4 December 1998, 54/54 G of 1 December
1999, 55/33 C of 20 November 2000 and 57/59 of 22 November 2002,
Convinced that the existence of nuclear weapons is a threat to the survival of
humanity and that the only real guarantee against the use or threat of use of these
weapons is their complete elimination and the assurance that they will never be used
or produced again,
Convinced also that the retention of nuclear weapons carries the inherent risk
of proliferation of those weapons and their falling into the hands of non-State actors,
Reaffirming that nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament are
equally important and mutually reinforcing processes requiring continuous
irreversible progress on both fronts,
Declaring that the participation of the international community as a whole is
central to the maintenance and enhancement of international peace and stability, and
that international security is a collective concern requiring collective engagement,
Declaring also that internationally negotiated treaties in the field of
disarmament have made a fundamental contribution to international peace and
security, and that unilateral and bilateral nuclear disarmament measures complement
the treaty-based multilateral approach towards nuclear disarmament,
Noting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality
of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, issued at The Hague on 8 July 1996, 1
Declaring that any presumption of the indefinite possession of nuclear
weapons by the nuclear-weapon States is incompatible with the integrity and
sustainability of the nuclear non-proliferation regime and with the broader goal of
the maintenance of international peace and security,
Declaring that each article of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons 2 is binding on the States parties at all times and in all circumstances and
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1
A/51/218, annex; see also Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J.
Reports 1996, p. 226.
2
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 729, No. 10485.
03 45597