United Nations General Assembly A/RES/56/38 Distr.: General 10 January 2002 Fifty-sixth session Agenda item 108 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly [without reference to a Main Committee (A/56/L.27 and Add.1)] 56/38. Recommendations on support for volunteering The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 52/17 of 20 November 1997, in which it proclaimed the year 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers, based on Economic and Social Council resolution 1997/44 of 22 July 1997, and its resolution 55/57 of 4 December 2000, in which it requested the Secretary-General to prepare a report on ways in which Governments and the United Nations system could support volunteering, and bearing in mind Commission for Social Development resolution 39/2 of 23 February 2001, 1 Recalling also the outcome document of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly entitled “World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world”, 2 in which the General Assembly recommended the promotion of the involvement of volunteers in social development, inter alia, by encouraging Governments, taking into account the views of all actors, to develop comprehensive strategies and programmes by raising public awareness about the value and opportunities of volunteerism and by facilitating an enabling environment for individuals and other actors of civil society to engage in voluntary activities, and the private sector to support such activities, Recalling further paragraphs 73 and 179 (f) of the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, 3 paragraph 42 of the Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium adopted at the twentyfifth special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in June 2001, 4 and paragraphs 32 (i) (b) and 41 (ii) (a) of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001– _______________ 1 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2001, Supplement No. 6 and corrigendum (E/2001/26 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. E. 2 See resolution S-24/2, annex. 3 Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II. 4 See resolution S-25/2, annex. 01 47881