A/RES/70/161
United Nations
Distr.: General
10 February 2016
General Assembly
Seventieth session
Agenda item 72 (b)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 17 December 2015
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/70/489/Add.2)]
70/161. Human rights defenders in the context of the Declaration
on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and
Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
The General Assembly,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Guided also by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1 the International
Covenants on Human Rights 2 and other relevant instruments,
Recalling its resolution 53/144 of 9 December 1998, by which it adopted by
consensus the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups
and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
Recalling also all other previous resolutions on this subject, including its
resolutions 66/164 of 19 December 2011 and 68/181 of 18 December 2013 and Human
Rights Council resolutions 22/6 of 21 March 2013 3 and 25/18 of 28 March 2014, 4
Reaffirming the importance of the Declaration and its implementation, and that
promoting respect and support for the activities of human rights defenders is
essential to the overall enjoyment of human rights,
Welcoming the steps taken by some States to promote and give full effect to
the Declaration, as well as by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights and some regional organizations in making the Declaration available and
known to all stakeholders at the national and local levels in their respective
languages, and underlining the need to promote and give effect to the Declaration,
including through its translation into the various languages and its further
dissemination with a view to its implementation in all regions,
Emphasizing the important role that individuals and civil society institutions,
including non-governmental organizations, groups and national human rights
__________________
1
2
3
4
Resolution 217 A (III).
Resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.
See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/68/53),
chap. IV, sect. A.
Ibid., Sixty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/69/53), chap. IV, sect. A.
15-16915 (E)
*1516915*
Please recycle