A/RES/55/86
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
21 February 2001
Fifty-fifth session
Agenda item 113
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/55/601)]
55/86.
Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights
and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to selfdetermination
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 54/151 of 17 December 1999, and taking note of
Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/3 of 7 April 2000, 1
Recalling also all of its relevant resolutions, in which, inter alia, it condemned
any State that permitted or tolerated the recruitment, financing, training, assembly,
transit and use of mercenaries with the objective of overthrowing the Governments
of States Members of the United Nations, especially those of developing countries,
and recalling further the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the
Organization of African Unity,
Reaffirming the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United
Nations concerning the strict observance of the principles of sovereign equality,
political independence, the territorial integrity of States, the non-use of force or of
the threat of use of force in international relations and the self-determination of
peoples,
Reaffirming also that, by virtue of the principle of self-determination, as
developed in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly
Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations, 2 all peoples have the right freely to determine, without external
interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural
development and every State has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the
provisions of the Charter,
Recognizing that mercenary activities continue to increase in many parts of the
world and take on new forms, permitting mercenaries to operate in a better
organized way, with increased pay, and that their numbers have grown and more
persons are prepared to become mercenaries,
1
See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2000, Supplement No. 3 and corrigendum
(E/2000/23 and Corr.1), chap. II, sect. A.
2
Resolution 2625 (XXV), annex.
00 56455