[New York, 3 July 2003] - After five months of intensive negotiations, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution on the prevention of armed conflict, hailed as one of the most important resolutions of the current session and expected to be a landmark in the Organisation's efforts in that field. An annex to the resolution (A/57/L.79) sets out the roles of Member States, the Assembly itself, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Secretary-General, as well as of regional organisations, civil society and the private sector, in preventing armed conflict. Welcoming the adoption of the text, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette recalled that the Secretary-General had taken conflict prevention as one of his major priorities, pledging to move the United Nations from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention. As he had stated, the United Nations had an obligation to the victims of violence around the world to take seriously the challenge of prevention and to move from rhetoric to reality.[CRIN] [source: UN. For the full press release, go to: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/ga10145.doc.htm]