Question of defining aggression

UN General Assembly, Question of defining aggression, A/RES/599, UN General Assembly, 31 January 1952, https://www.refworld.org/legal/resolution/unga/1952/en/8951 [accessed 22 June 2025]
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VI. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THE REPORTS OF THE SIXTH COMMITTEE
599. Question of defining aggression

The General Assembly, Considering that, under resolution 378 B (V) of 17 November 1950, it referred the question of defining aggression, raised in the draft resolution[1]1of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the International Law Commission for examination in conjunction with matters which were under consideration by that Commission, Considering that the International Law Commission did not in its report[2]2furnish an express definition of aggression but merely included aggression among the offences defined in its draft Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind, Considering that the General Assembly, on 13 November 1951, decided[3]3not to examine the draft Code at its sixth session but to include it in the provisional agenda of its seventh session, Considering that, although the existence of the crime of aggression may be inferred from the circumstances peculiar to each particular case, it is nevertheless possible and desirable, with a view to ensuring international peace and security and to developing international criminal law, to define aggression by reference to the elements which constitute it, Considering further that it would be of definite advantage if directives were formulated for the future guidance of such international bodies as may be called upon to determine the aggressor,

1. Decides to include in the agenda of its seventh session the question of defining aggression;

2. Instructs the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventh session a report in which the question of defining aggression shall be thoroughly discussed in the light of the views expressed in the Sixth Committee at the sixth session of the General Assembly and which shall duly take into account the draft resolutions and amendments submitted concerning this question;

3. Requests States Members, when transmitting their observations on the draft Code to the Secretary-General, to give in particular their views on the problem of defining aggression.

368th plenary meeting,
31 January 1952.
[1] Ibid., Fifth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/C. 1/608. [2] Ibid., Sixth Session, Supplement No. 9. [3] Ibid., Plenary Meetings, 342nd meeting, para. 42.
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