A/RES/56/24 Recalling the applicable principles and rules of international law relating to the freedom of the high seas and the rights of passage through maritime space, including those of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 22 1. Welcomes the continued contribution that the Antarctic Treaty,21 and the treaties of Tlatelolco, 17 Rarotonga,18 Bangkok 19 and Pelindaba 20 are making towards freeing the southern hemisphere and adjacent areas covered by those treaties from nuclear weapons; 2. Calls for the ratification of the treaties of Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok and Pelindaba by all States of the region, and calls upon all concerned States to continue to work together in order to facilitate adherence to the protocols to nuclearweapon-free zone treaties by all relevant States that have not yet done so; 3. Welcomes the steps taken to conclude further nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned, and calls upon all States to consider all relevant proposals, including those reflected in its resolutions on the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in the Middle East and South Asia; 4. Convinced of the important role of nuclear-weapon-free zones in strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime and in extending the areas of the world that are nuclear-weapon-free, and, with particular reference to the responsibilities of the nuclear-weapon States, calls upon all States to support the process of nuclear disarmament and to work for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons; 5. Calls upon the States parties and signatories to the treaties of Tlatelolco, Rarotonga, Bangkok and Pelindaba, in order to pursue the common goals envisaged in those treaties and to promote the nuclear-weapon-free status of the southern hemisphere and adjacent areas, to explore and implement further ways and means of cooperation among themselves and their treaty agencies; 6. Welcomes the vigorous efforts being made among States parties and signatories to those treaties to promote their common objectives, and considers that an international conference of States parties and signatories to the nuclear-weaponfree zone treaties might be held to support the common goals envisaged in those treaties; 7. Encourages the competent authorities of the nuclear-weapon-free-zone treaties to provide assistance to the States parties and signatories to those treaties so as to facilitate the accomplishment of these goals; 8. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-seventh session the item entitled “Nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere and adjacent areas”. 68th plenary meeting 29 November 2001 _______________ 22 See The Law of the Sea: Official Texts of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 and of the Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 with Index and Excerpts from the Final Act of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.97.V.10). 10