Participation of volunteers, "White Helmets", in activities of the United Nations in the field of humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and technical cooperation for development : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly.

Participation of volunteers, "White Helmets", in activities of UN in the field of humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and technical cooperation for development

Encourages voluntary national and regional actions aimed at making available to the UN system, through the UN Volunteers, national volunteer corps such as the White Helmets on a standby basis, in accordande with accepted UN procedures and practices, in order to provide specialized human and technical resources for emergency relief and rehabilitation; recognizes that the White Helmets, as an operational partner of the UN Volunteers, are an efficient and viable mechanism for making pre-identified and trained homogenous teams available to the UN system, in support of immediate relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and development activities, in the light of the increasing number and growing magnitude and complexity of natural disasters and other emergencies; calls upon States to promote the facilitation of cooperative actions between the UN system and the civil society, through national volunteer corps, in order to strengthen the UN capacities for early and effective response to humanitarian emergencies; encourages States to identify and support their respective national focal points for the White Helmets in order to continue to provide the UN system with an accessible global network of rapid response facilities in case of humanitarian emergencies; invites States and the UN system to consider ways and means to ensure the integration of the White Helmets initiative into their programme activites, particularly those related to humanitarian and disaster relief assistance; invites the Secretary-General to consider the potential use of White Helmets as a resource for preventing and mitigating the effects of emergencies and post-conflict humanitarian emergencies and, in this context, to maintain an adequate structure for the White Helmets liaison functions, taking into account the ongoing reforms process.

Adopted without vote, 73rd meeting

2 p.

Adopted at the 73rd plenary meeting, 16 Dec. 1997.