A/RES/71/138. Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, 2016

• Resolution Number: A/RES/71/138
• Year: 2016
• Session: 71st
• Issuer: General Assembly of the United Nation

United Nations

A/RES/71/138

General Assembly

Distr.: General

19 December 2016

Seventy-first session

Agenda item 76

16-21342 (E)

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Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 13 December 2016

[on the report of the Sixth Committee (A/71/507)]

71/138. Technical Notes on Onl ine Dispute R esolution of the Un ited

Nation s Commission on In ternati onal Trade Law

The General Assembly ,

Reca lling its re solutio n 2 205 (XX I) of 17 D ecember 1 966, by w hich it

esta blished the U nited N ations C ommissi on on Interna tional Trade L aw w ith a

mand ate to f urther t he progr essive harmoni zation and uni ficatio n of the law of

inter nationa l trade and in tha t respe ct to bear i n mind the interest s of all peo ples, in

part icular thos e of de veloping cou ntries, in the ext ensive dev elopment of

inte rnationa l trade,

Recogn izing that the s harp increa se in online cross-bo rder transa ctions has raised

a n eed fo r mec hanisms for resolvin g disp utes t hat ar ise fr om suc h tran sactions , and

reco gnizing also tha t one su ch mech anism is online dispute resolut ion,

Obse rving t hat o nline dispute resolu tion c an as sist th e par ties i n reso lving the

disp ute in a simple, fast, flexi ble a nd se cure manner, withou t the need for physic al

prese nce at a meetin g or he aring,

Obse rving also that o nline di spute res olution r epresen ts signi ficant

oppo rtunitie s for access to d ispute r esoluti on by buyers and s ellers conclu ding

cros s-bord er comm ercial t ransacti ons, bo th in de veloped and dev eloping countri es,

Reca lling tha t, at i ts forty -third s ession, in 2010 , the Commiss ion agre ed tha t a

work ing gro up shoul d be es tablishe d to un dertake work in the fi eld of o nline d ispute

resol utio n,

1

and tha t, at i ts forty-ei ghth sessio n, i n 2 015, the Comm ission deci ded

that the wo rk sho uld tak e the form of a non -bindin g descr iptive documen t refle cting

eleme nts of an onlin e disput e resol ution pr ocess,

2

Noti ng th at the Tec hnical Notes on Online Dispute Resolut ion

3

are non-bind ing

and desc riptive and refl ect t he p rinciple s of imp artialit y, indepe ndence, effi ciency,

effec tiveness , due pr ocess, fairness, accou ntabilit y and tr anspare ncy,

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1

See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/65/17),

para. 257.

2

Ibid., Seventieth Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/70/17), para. 352.

3

Ibid., Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/71/17), annex I.