United Nations A/RES/56/195 General Assembly Distr.: General 21 January 2002 Fifty-sixth session Agenda item 98 (b) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly [on the report of the Second Committee (A/56/561/Add.2)] 56/195. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 44/236 of 22 December 1989, 49/22 A of 2 December 1994, 49/22 B of 20 December 1994, 53/185 of 15 December 1998 and 54/219 of 22 December 1999 and Economic and Social Council resolution 1999/63 of 30 July 1999, and taking note of Council resolution 2001/35 of 26 July 2001, Recalling also the forward-looking platform for international concerted disaster reduction, as developed by the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction and as expressed in the Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World: Guidelines for Natural Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Mitigation and its Plan of Action, 1 as well as the Geneva mandate on disaster reduction and the strategy document entitled “A safer world in the twenty-first century: risk and disaster reduction”, 2 Emphasizing the multisectoral, interdisciplinary and cross-cutting nature of natural disaster reduction, and stressing that continued interaction, cooperation and partnerships among the institutions concerned are considered essential to achieve jointly agreed objectives and priorities, Having considered the current institutional arrangements, as established in its resolution 54/219, with the Inter-Agency Task Force for Disaster Reduction and the inter-agency secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and taking into account the assessment after the first period of operations,3 Recognizing that disaster reduction is an important element that contributes to the achievement of sustainable development and that it should be taken into account in the preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held at Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002, _______________ 1 A/CONF.172/9, resolution 1, annex I. Adopted by the programme forum on the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, held at Geneva from 5 to 9 July 1999. 3 A/56/68–E/2001/653, paras. 54-59. 2 01 49261