United Nations A/RES/59/156 General Assembly Distr.: General 3 February 2005 Fifty-ninth session Agenda item 96 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 20 December 2004 [on the report of the Third Committee (A/59/494)] 59/156. Preventing, combating and punishing trafficking in human organs The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 53/111 of 9 December 1998, by which it established an open-ended intergovernmental ad hoc committee for the purpose of elaborating a comprehensive international convention against transnational organized crime and of discussing the elaboration, as appropriate, of international instruments addressing trafficking in women and children, combating illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, and illegal trafficking in and transporting of migrants, including by sea, Recalling also its resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000, by which it adopted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Recalling further its resolution 55/255 of 31 May 2001, by which it adopted the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Concerned about the negative economic and social implications of the activities of organized crime and the possible expansion of such crime, such as trafficking in human organs, Alarmed at the potential growth of exploitation by criminal groups of human needs, poverty and destitution for the purpose of trafficking in human organs, using violence, coercion and kidnapping, especially kidnapping of children, with a view to exploiting them by means of organ transplant operations, Noting with concern that trafficking in human organs, wherever it occurs, constitutes a gross violation of the human rights, including the integrity, of its victims, 04-48562