United Nations A/RES/60/195 General Assembly Distr.: General 2 March 2006 Sixtieth session Agenda item 52 (c) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 22 December 2005 [on the report of the Second Committee (A/60/488/Add.3)] 60/195. 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, 54/219 of 22 December 1999, 56/195 of 21 December 2001, 57/256 of 20 December 2002, 58/214 of 23 December 2003 and 59/231 of 22 December 2004, and Economic and Social Council resolutions 1999/63 of 30 July 1999 and 2001/35 of 26 July 2001, and taking into due consideration its resolution 57/270 B of 23 June 2003 on integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields, Expressing its deep concern at the number and scale of natural disasters and their increasing impact within recent years, which have resulted in massive loss of life and long-term negative social, economic and environmental consequences for vulnerable societies throughout the world, in particular in developing countries, Reiterating that, although natural disasters damage the social and economic infrastructure of all countries, the long-term consequences of natural disasters are especially severe for developing countries and hamper the achievement of their sustainable development, Recognizing that disaster risk reduction is a cross-cutting issue in the context of sustainable development, Recognizing also the clear relationship between development, disaster risk reduction, disaster response and disaster recovery and the need to deploy efforts in all these areas, Recognizing further the urgent need to further develop and make use of the existing scientific and technical knowledge to build resilience to natural disasters, and emphasizing the need for developing countries to have access to technology so as to tackle natural disasters effectively, Emphasizing that disaster risk reduction, including reducing vulnerability to natural disasters, is an important element that contributes to the achievement of sustainable development, 05-49930