On 21 December 2009 the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution entitled “Midterm comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, 2005-2015”. Draft resolution which was prepared and tabled by Tajikistan was adopted by the Second Committee of the General Assembly by consensus earlier on 9 December 2009.
Adoption of resolution by consensus once again showed that initiatives of Tajikistan on water issues are of a global importance. Resolution emphasizes that water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the eradication of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being.
Resolution was prepared on the basis of three other resolutions which were adopted by the Second Committee of the UN GA in previous years. 35 countries which represent different regions of the World have joined to the list of co-sponsors of our resolution (Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Canada, Chili, Dominican Republic, DPRK, El Salvador, Haiti, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italia, Kazakhstan, France, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mauritius, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Togo, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uruguay). Resolution consists of seven preamble and eleven operational paragraphs, and foresees realization of the following activities:
1) to convene in the city of Dushanbe, preferably in June 2010, a high-level international conference on the midterm comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, 2005-2015, and of the internationally agreed water-related goals.
2) to convene a high-level interactive dialogue of the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly in New York on 22 March 2010, World Water Day, on the implementation of the Decade;
3) requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session on the implementation of the present resolution, as well as on the activities planned by the Secretary-General and other relevant organizations of the United Nations system for the Decade.
It should be noted that it was the initiative of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan to hold in Dushanbe an international conference on midterm comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, 2005-2015”.