Universal Congress on the Panama Canal, G.A. res. 50/12, U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 19, U.N. Doc. A/50/49 (Vol. I) (1995).



                     
 
      The General Assembly,
 
      Recalling its resolutions 49/28 of 6 December 1994 on the law of the
sea, 49/99 of 19 December 1994 on international trade and development and
49/131 of 19 December 1994 on the declaration of 1998 as International Year of
the Ocean, and resolutions 2.5 of 16 November 1993, adopted by the General
Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization at its twenty-seventh session, and 1994/48 of the Economic and
Social Council of 29 July 1994, both on the International Year of the Ocean,
 
      Bearing in mind that on 7 September 1977 Mr. Jimmy Carter, President of
the United States of America, and General Omar Torrijos, Head of Government of
the Republic of Panama, signed in Washington the Treaty concerning the
Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal
Treaty, known as the Torrijos-Carter treaties, which stipulate that, at noon
on 31 December 1999, the Canal, including all improvements, is to come under
the control of the Republic of Panama, which shall assume total responsibility
for its management, operation and maintenance,
 
      Emphasizing the significance of the Washington Declaration, signed on 7
September 1977 by the heads of State, heads of Government and representatives
of the American republics, which recognizes "the importance for the
hemisphere, for trade and for world shipping of the agreements designed to
ensure the accessibility and continued neutrality of the Panama Canal",
 
      Welcoming the plans of the Government of Panama to hold a Universal
Congress on the Panama Canal in Panama City in September 1997, with the
participation of Governments, international bodies, public and private
academic institutions, maritime users and international shipping companies, to
examine jointly the role which the Panama Canal should play in the
twenty-first century,
 
      Underlining the fact that the International Congress for Study of the
Interocean Canal (Congres international d'etudes du canal interoceanique) was
convened by the Societe de geographie de Paris, met from 15 to 29 May 1879 in
the French capital, under the presidency of Count Ferdinand de Lesseps,
builder of the Suez Canal, and culminated in the resolution that the canal
should be built along the route traced between the Gulf of Limon on the
Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Panama on the Pacific Ocean,
 
      Cognizant of the fact that, in keeping with the spirit of a new global
alliance for sustainable development, it is necessary to formulate a balanced,
integrated approach to environmental, trade and development issues,
 
      Convinced, therefore, that the Universal Congress on the Panama Canal
will promote international cooperation towards ensuring an orderly,
sustainable development of the uses and resources of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans and the rational exploitation and development of the Canal watershed
and coastal areas, bearing in mind that Panama's coastline on the two oceans
stretches for 2,988.3 kilometres in all, of which 1,700.6 kilometres are on
the Pacific Ocean and 1,287.7 are on the Caribbean Sea,
 
      Noting with appreciation the progress of the Tripartite Commission,
consisting of the Republic of Panama, the United States of America and Japan,
in the plans for the construction in the Isthmus of Panama of a sea-level
canal or the enlargement of the present lock canal,
 
      Reaffirming its resolution 31/142 of 17 December 1976, on the one
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Amphictyonic Congress of Panama, in
which it recalled that Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, referred on several
occasions to the need for a possible opening of a canal in Panama, which "will
shorten distances throughout the world, strengthen commercial ties" between
the continents and promote the exchange of products "from the four corners of
the globe",
 
      Noting with satisfaction that by its resolution 49/131, 1998 was
proclaimed International Year of the Ocean, during which year the Lisbon World
Exposition is to be held,
 
      Emphasizing that the Universal Congress on the Panama Canal has among
its priority aims the promotion of international cooperation with a view to
achieving an orderly, sustainable development of the uses and resources of the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,
 
      1.    Supports the initiative of the Government of Panama in convening
the Universal Congress on the Panama Canal, with the participation of
Governments, international bodies, public and private academic institutions,
maritime users and international shipping companies, to examine jointly the
role which the Panama Canal should play in the twenty-first century;
 
      2.    Requests Member States to assist generously in this undertaking;
 
      3.    Urges the competent organs, programmes and specialized agencies of
the United Nations system, in particular, the United Nations Development
Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme and the International
Maritime Organization, to study the possibility of providing assistance from
within existing resources for the organization of the Universal Congress on
the Panama Canal;
 
      4.    Emphasizes the importance of the Universal Congress on the Panama
Canal and expresses the hope that its results will contribute to the growth of
world trade and to sustained economic growth and sustainable development
throughout the world;
 
      5.    Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly
at its fifty-first session a report on the implementation of the present
resolution;
 
      6.    Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-first
session the item entitled "Universal Congress on the Panama Canal".
      

 

 



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