United Nations General Assembly A/RES/58/127 Distr.: General 17 February 2004 Fifty-eighth session Agenda item 22 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2003 [without reference to a Main Committee (A/58/L.50 and Add.1)] 58/127. Assistance in mine action The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 57/159 of 16 December 2002 and all its previous resolutions on assistance in mine clearance and mine action, all adopted without a vote, Recognizing that, in addition to the primary role of States, the United Nations has a significant role to play in the field of assistance in mine action, and considering mine action to be an important and integrated component of United Nations humanitarian and development activities, Reaffirming its deep concern at the tremendous humanitarian and development problems caused by the presence of mines and other unexploded ordnance that constitute an obstacle to the return of refugees and other displaced persons, to humanitarian aid operations and to reconstruction and economic development, as well as to the restoration of normal social conditions, and that have serious and lasting social and economic consequences for the populations of mine-affected countries, Bearing in mind the serious threat that mines and other unexploded ordnance pose to the safety, health and lives of local civilian populations, as well as of personnel participating in humanitarian, peacekeeping and rehabilitation programmes and operations, Encouraged by the reduction in the number of new mine victims, but reiterating its dismay at the existing high number of victims of mines and other unexploded ordnance, especially among civilian populations, including women and children, and recalling in this context its resolution 57/190 of 18 December 2002 and Commission on Human Rights resolutions 2003/49 of 23 April 2003, on the human rights of persons with disabilities, and 2003/86 of 25 April 2003, on the rights of the child, 1 Deeply alarmed by the number of mines that continue to be laid each year, as well as the presence of a decreasing but still very large number of mines and other _______________ 1 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2003, Supplement No. 3 (E/2003/23), chap. II, sect. A. 03 50220