United Nations General Assembly A/RES/59/237 Distr.: General 24 February 2005 Fifty-ninth session Agenda item 85 (g) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 22 December 2004 [on the report of the Second Committee (A/59/483/Add.7)] 59/237. United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development The General Assembly, Recalling chapter 36 of Agenda 21, on promoting education, public awareness and training, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3 to 14 June 1992, 1 Recalling also the work programme on education, public awareness and training initiated by the Commission on Sustainable Development at its fourth session in 1996 2 and elaborated upon at its sixth session in 1998, 3 Recalling further the relevant provisions of the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg Plan of Implementation”) 4 on education to promote sustainable development, in particular its provision 124, Recalling its resolutions 57/254 of 20 December 2002 and 58/219 of 23 December 2003, Underlining in this regard the fact that the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development shall begin on 1 January 2005, Welcoming the fact that the Commission on Sustainable Development, at its eleventh session, identified education as one of the cross-cutting issues of its multiyear programme of work, 5 Reaffirming the internationally agreed development goal of achieving universal primary education, in particular that by 2015 children everywhere, boys _______________ 1 See Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3–14 June 1992 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigenda), vol. I, Resolutions adopted by the Conference, resolution 1, annex II. 2 Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1996, Supplement No. 8 (E/1996/28), chap. I, sect. C, decision 4/11, para. 2. 3 Ibid., 1998, Supplement No. 9 (E/1998/29), chap. I, sect. B, decision 6/3, sect. C. 4 Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August–4 September 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.1 and corrigendum), chap. I, resolution 2, annex. 5 See Economic and Social Council resolution 2003/61 of 25 July 2003. 04-49048