Prevention of the Smuggling of Aliens

A/RES/48/102View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 110 Crime prevention and criminal justice, published in 1994.

What’s in this document?

15 operative paragraphs

United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 536, No. 7794.

Ibid., vols. 1184 and 1185, No. 18961.

Ibid., vol. 1226, No. 18961. Protocol relating to the International Convention of 1 November 1974 for the Safety of Life at Sea (with annex, appendix and Final Act of the International Conference on Tanker Safety and Pollution Prevention, 1978). Concluded at London on 17 February 1978.

Ibid., vol. 266, No. 3822.

Condemns the practice of smuggling aliens in violation of international and national law and without regard for the safety, well-being and human rights of the migrants;

Commends those States that have cooperated to combat the smuggling of aliens and to address specific incidents where smuggled aliens have needed to be processed in accordance with international standards and the domestic laws and procedures of the State concerned and returned safely to appropriate destinations;

Urges States to take appropriate steps to frustrate the objectives and activities of smugglers of aliens and thus to protect would-be migrants from exploitation and loss of life, inter alia, by amending criminal laws, if necessary, to encompass the smuggling of aliens and by establishing or improving procedures to permit the ready discovery of false travel documents supplied by smugglers;

Requests that States cooperate in order to prevent the illegal transport by smugglers of third country nationals through their territory;

Also requests States that have not done so to make special efforts to prevent their airports, means of ground transportation and air carriers from being used by smugglers of aliens;

Requests States to cooperate in the interest of safety of life at sea, to increase their efforts to prevent thesmuggling of aliens on ships and to ensure that prompt and effective action is taken against the smuggling of aliens by ship;

Calls upon Member States and relevant specialized agencies and international organizations to take into account socio-economic factors and to cooperate at the bilateral and multilateral levels in addressing all aspects of the problem of the smuggling of aliens;

Reaffirms the importance of existing international conventions in preventing the economic exploitation and loss of life that can result from smuggling aliens, and calls upon all States to exchange information and to consider ratifying or acceding to them where they have not done so and to implement fully and enforce such conventions;

Emphasizes that international efforts to prevent the smuggling of aliens should not inhibit legal migration or freedom of travel or undercut the protection provided by international law to refugees;

Reaffirms the need to observe fully international and national law in dealing with the smuggling of aliens, including the provision of humane treatment and strict observance of all the human rights of migrants;

Requests the relevant specialized agencies and intergovernmental organizations, in particular the International Organization for Migration, the International Maritime Organization, the International Criminal Police Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization, to consider ways and means, within their respective spheres of competence, to enhance international cooperation to combat thesmuggling of aliens;

Requests the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to consider giving special attention to the question of thesmuggling of aliens at its third session, to be held in 1994, in order to encourage international cooperation to address this problem within the framework of its mandate;

Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the text of the present resolution to all Member States and to relevant specialized agencies and intergovernmental organizations;

Invites Member States and relevant specialized agencies and intergovernmental organizations to report to the Secretary-General on the measures they have taken to combat the smuggling of aliens;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly on the measures taken by States, specialized agencies and intergovernmental organizations to combat the smuggling of aliens, and decides to consider this question at its forty-ninth session under the item entitled "Crime prevention and criminal justice".

Prevention of the Smuggling of Aliens

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