United Nations World Commission on Environment and - Our Common Future

A

General Assembly

Distr.GENERAL

A/42/427

4 August 1987

ENGLISH

ORIGINAL: ARABIC/CHINESE/ENGLISH/

FRENCH/RUSSIAN/SPANISH

Forty-second session

Item 83 (e) of the provisional agenda

DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION: ENVIRONMENT

Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development

Note by the Secretary-General

1. The General Assembly, in its resolution 38/161 of 19 December 1983, inter alia , welcomed the establishment of a special commission that should make available a report on environment and the global problmatique to the year 2000 and beyond, including proposed strategies for sustainable development. The commission later adopted the name World Commission on Environment and Development. In the same resolution, the Assembly decided that, on matters within the mandate and purview ot the United Nations Environment Programme, the report ot the special commission should in the first instance be considered by the Governing Council of the Programme, for transmission to the Assembly together with its comments, and for use as basic material in the preparation, for adoption by the Assembly, of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond.

2. At its fourteenth session, held at Nairobi from 8 to 19 June 1987, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme adopted decision 14/14 of 16 June 1987, entitled "Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development" and, inter alia , decided to transmit the Commission's report to the General Assembly together with a draft resolution annexed to the decision for consideration and adoption by the Assembly.

3. The report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, entitled "Our Common Future", is hereby transmitted to the General Assembly. Decision 14/14 of the Governing Council, the proposed draft resolution and the comments ot the Governing Council on the report of the Commission can be found an the report of the Governing Council on the work of its fourteenth session.

1. A/42/150.
2. 1/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-second Session, Supplement No. 25 (A/42/25).

ANNEX

Report of the World Commission on Environment
and Development

"Our Common Future"

Members of the Commission

Part I: Common Concerns

Part II: Common Challenges

Part III: Common Endeavours

Throughout this report, quotes from some of the many people who spoke at WCED public hearings appear in boxes to illustrate the range of opinions the Commission was exposed to during its three years of work. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission.

This work is excerpted from an official document of the United Nations. The policy of this organisation is to keep most of its documents in the public domain in order to disseminate "as widely as possible the ideas (contained) in the United Nations Publications".

Pursuant to UN Administrative Instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2 available in English only, these documents are in the public domain worldwide:

1. Official records (proceedings of conferences, verbatim and summary records, ...)
2. United Nations documents issued with a UN symbol
3. Public information material designed primarily to inform the public about United Nations activities (not including public information material that is offered for sale).