SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON CHARTER BEGINS TWO-WEEK SESSION
Press Release
L/2749
SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON CHARTER BEGINS TWO-WEEK SESSION
19960221 The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization this morning elected Maria del Lujan Flores (Uruguay) Chairman, as it began its two-week session. Paula Escarameia (Portugal) was elected Vice-Chairman, and Martin Smejkal (Czech Republic) Rapporteur. The election of two Vice-Chairmen was postponed to a later date, as the African and Asian groups had not agreed on their candidates.Addressing the Committee, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel Hans Corell said that the previously 47-member body was now open to all Member States. It had been entrusted with considering such questions as the maintenance of international peace and security, the peaceful settlement of disputes between States and the strengthening of the Organization.
Recalling that the Committee's agenda had been set out in General Assembly resolution 50/52, he said that it had been asked to consider how to implement the provisions of the Charter on helping third States affected by sanctions imposed under the Charter's Chapter VII. The Committee should consider the Secretary-General's proposals on the matter and the Sixth (Legal) Committee's debates during the fiftieth Assembly session, he said. On international peace and security, the Committee should accord enough time to consider proposals by Cuba on strengthening the Organization's role and enhancing its effectiveness and the revised proposal by Libya on enhancing the Security Council's effectiveness.
Mr. Corell added that the Committee, which would also consider how to enhance cooperation between the United Nations and regional arrangements or agencies in maintaining international peace and security, had already achieved concrete results with the adoption of the Declaration on the Enhancement of Cooperation between the United Nations and Regional Arrangements or Agencies in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security, annexed to Assembly resolution 49/57.
The Committee had been requested to consider proposals on the peaceful settlement of disputes, including a proposal by Sierra Leone on establishing a
dispute settlement service offering or responding with its services early in disputes, Mr. Corell said. The Committee should also consider how to enhance the role of the International Court of Justice. Suggestions on that were contained in the Secretary-General's An Agenda for Peace.
Two new issues had been added to the session of the Special Committee, he said. It was required to consider the role of the Trusteeship Council and the status of the United Nations Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs and the Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council. On the first issue, two States, Malaysia and Antigua and Barbuda, had submitted comments. The Secretariat would submit a note on the issue of the Repertory and Repertoire, Mr. Corell concluded.
Under General Assembly resolution 796 (VIII) adopted on 27 November 1953, the Secretary-General was requested to prepare, publish and circulate among Member States a Repertory of the practices of United Nations organs. Subsequently, a series of resolutions had requested him to continue to prepare supplements. The Repertory generally focuses on the presentation of decisions of United Nations organs and summarizes relevant views of delegations. It provides a summary of United Nations practice regarding the Articles of the Charter, emphasizing those in relation to which significant practice had developed in United Nations organs and throwing light on the interpretation or application of particular provisions.
The Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council, on the other hand, was designed to make materials in official records "more readily available" and to serve as a reference source for governments, delegations, the Secretariat, jurists, scholars and other users. The publication gives an analytical summary of the Council's proceedings and arranges the material by categories in texts, tables or in the form of "cases" organized according to the Council's provisional rules of procedure and by the Charter's Articles. The Repertoire's publication was authorized by Assembly resolution 686 (VII) of 5 December 1952.
The Special Committee will meet again at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, 22 February.
Special Committee Work Programme
During its two-week session, which will conclude on 5 March, the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization will consider proposals concerning the maintenance of international peace and security and the peaceful settlement of all disputes. The Committee is open to all Member States in accordance with General Assembly resolution 50/52 of 11 December 1995.
With regard to maintenance of international peace and security, the Assembly requested the Committee to continue to consider, on a priority basis, the question of the implementation of the provisions of the Charter relating to assistance to third States affected by sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter, including the implementation of the provisions of General Assembly resolution 50/51, also adopted on 11 December 1995.
Committee on Charter - 3 - Press Release L/2749 207th Meeting (AM) 21 February 1996
Assembly resolution 50/51 stresses that, in the formulation of sanctions regimes, due consideration be given to the potential effects of sanctions in third States. It requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Security Council and its sanctions committees are able to carry out their work expeditiously. It requests him, among other things, to make arrangements in the Secretariat for assessing information on the effects of sanctions on third States and for providing advice to the Security Council on the specific needs and problems of those States.
The resolution further requests the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly at its fifty-first session on the implementation of the above mentioned paragraph. In addition, it requests him to report on possible guidelines to be used by the Secretariat for coordinating information on international economic or other assistance potentially available to the third States. The United Nations system, international financial institutions, other international organizations, regional organizations and Member States are invited to continue to consider and address special economic problems of third States affected by sanctions.
(According to Article 50 of the United Nations Charter, if preventive enforcement measures against any State are taken by the Security Council, any other State, whether a Member of the United Nations or not, confronted with special economic problems arising from those measures, has the right to consult the Security Council with regard to a solution of those problems.)
By the terms of resolution 50/52, the Assembly further requests that the Special Committee continue to consider means to enhance the effectiveness of the Security Council in regard to the maintenance of international peace and security. It also requests that the Committee continue its consideration of the question of the enhancement of cooperation between the United Nations and the regional arrangements or agencies.
The Committee was also requested to continue consideration of proposals relating to the peaceful settlement of disputes between States. Those include a proposal on the establishment of a dispute settlement service, offering or responding with its services early in disputes, and proposals relating to the enhancement of the role of the International Court of Justice.
By other terms of the resolution, the Assembly expressed its intention to initiate the procedure set out in Article 108 of the Charter of the United Nations to amend the Charter, with prospective effect, by the deletion of the "enemy State" clauses from Articles 53, 77 and 107 at its earliest appropriate future session. (The term "enemy State" applies to any State which, during the Second World War, has been an enemy of any signatory of the present Charter.)
Committee on Charter - 4 - Press Release L/2749 207th Meeting (AM) 21 February 1996
Concerning the work of the Committee, the Assembly decided that the Committee would continue to operate on consensus. Regarding participation of observers in the Committee's meetings, it decided that the Committee should be authorized to accept the participation in its meetings of observers of States other than the Member States of the United Nations which are members of specialized agencies or of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It also decided that the Committee should invite intergovernmental organizations to participate in the debate in the plenary meetings on specific items, where such participation would assist its work.
It requested the Committee at its 1996 session to identify new subjects for consideration in its future work with a view to revitalizing the work of the United Nations, and to discuss how to offer its assistance to the working groups of the General Assembly in that field. In addition, by the terms of resolution 50/55, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to invite Member States to submit, not later than 31 May 1996, written comments on the future of the Trusteeship Council. The Secretary-General has been requested to submit to the General Assembly, before the end of its fiftieth session, a report containing comments made by Member States on that subject.
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