The U.N. General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution on Tuesday on strengthening international cooperation and coordination of efforts to reduce the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster which occurred in 1986.
The resolution, sponsored by Ukraine, proclaimed the next 10 years as a decade of "recovery and sustainable development" to help affected communities reverse the domino effect of poverty, poor health, fear and psychosocial trauma that have hampered growth in the region since 1986, when one of the plant's nuclear reactors exploded during a test.
The resolution is meant to focus United Nations and national-level activities on helping Chernobyl-affected communities return to normal life, as far as possible, within that time frame.
The assembly's action came after the release early last month of a report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who noted that, after two decades, the international community was uniting behind an emerging consensus that the focus of Chernobyl-related activities should "shift from emergency humanitarian aid to long-term development assistance aimed at creating new economic opportunities, restoring community self-sufficiency and promoting a return to normalcy among affected populations."
The United Nations and the governments of the three nearby countries had come to recognize that a return to normal life was a "realistic prospect" for most people living in Chernobyl-affected regions, Ban said.
Now, the areas most needed sustainable social and economic development: new jobs, fresh investment and the restoration of a sense of community self-reliance, he said.
To that end, the resolution welcomed the recent proposal by the U.N. Development Program to coordinate the drafting of a U.N. Action Plan for Chernobyl recovery to 2016, "to implement the decade in support of national strategies of the affected countries, with the aim of maximizing limited resources, avoiding duplication of effort and building on recognized agency mandates and competencies."
Chernobyl's fourth Soviet-designed nuclear reactor exploded in the early hours of April 26, 1986, resulting in tragic environmental and human consequences.
Source:Xinhua
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