diff --git a/headers/posix/assert.h b/headers/posix/assert.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b47812abdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/headers/posix/assert.h
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/* 
+** Distributed under the terms of the Haiku License.
+*/
+#ifndef _ASSERT_H_
+#define _ASSERT_H_
+
+#undef assert
+
+#ifndef NDEBUG
+	// defining NDEBUG disables assert() functionality
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+extern void __assert_fail(const char *assertion, const char *file,
+				unsigned int line, const char *function);
+
+extern void __assert_perror_fail(int error, const char *file,
+				unsigned int line, const char *function);
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+}
+#endif
+
+#define assert(assertion) \
+	((assertion) ? (void)0 : __assert_fail(#assertion, __FILE__, __LINE__, __PRETTY_FUNCTION__))
+
+#else	// NDEBUG
+#	define assert(condition) ;
+#endif
+
+#endif	/* _ASSERT_H_ */