SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS NEW YORK CONVENTION SERVES AS MODEL FOR SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATIVE TEXTS ON ARBITRATION
Press Release
SG/SM/6593
L/2868
SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS NEW YORK CONVENTION SERVES AS MODEL FOR SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATIVE TEXTS ON ARBITRATION
19980610 Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's address delivered today at the New York Convention Day:It gives me pleasure to welcome you to this special meeting of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) devoted to the New York Convention.
On this day 40 years ago, a diplomatic conference convened by the United Nations in New York concluded the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
Today's meeting marks that anniversary and offers an opportunity to review our experience with the Convention, to take stock of current issues in the field and to consider our future work.
We are honoured that leading arbitration practitioners and experts are here today to share with us their views. I would like to welcome two distinguished experts who participated in the drafting of the Convention as government delegates: Professor Pieter Sanders, of the Netherlands, and Dr. Ottoarndt Glossner, of the Federal Republic of Germany.
I am also happy to greet Mr. Fali Nariman, President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), as well as his colleagues on the Council. The ICCA has championed the cause of international commercial arbitration for some 25 years, contributing greatly to the work of UNCITRAL.
Also joining us today are representatives of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, headed by its Chairman, Dr. Robert Briner. Indeed, the Symposium today would be incomplete without the ICC, for it was an initiative of the ICC itself that prompted the United Nations in 1953 to prepare an international treaty on arbitral awards.
The ICC has become an even closer partner of the United Nations in recent months, as part of my efforts to enhance ties with the private sector.
The ICC understands that business has a compelling interest in the United Nations work for peace and development, in our technical standard-setting and in our efforts to harmonize and modernize the rules of international trade. That is why, earlier this year, the United Nations and ICC issued a statement pledging to work jointly to expand economic opportunities worldwide and to promote investment in selected least developed countries.
The UNCITRAL, for its part, has a strong tradition of obtaining input from the private sector. In UNCITRAL's early years, arbitration was not accepted in all parts of the world as an alternative to the judicial settlement of international commercial disputes. Rather, the practice was often ignored or approached with reservation or suspicion, which in turn became a hindrance to the development of international trade. The UNCITRAL's work, drawing in part on the expertise of the private sector, has helped dispel such doubts. Today, international commercial arbitration has a new prominence.
It is my hope that such cooperation will continue. The participation of the private sector is essential: not only during the preparation of texts dealing with the needs of the global business community, but also once they have been finalized. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage private sector organizations to be much more active in promoting the legislative consideration and enactment of such texts.
Let me turn now to the subject of today's discussions, the New York Convention. This landmark instrument has many virtues. It has nourished respect for binding commitments, whether they have been entered into by private parties or governments. It has inspired confidence in the rule of law. And it has helped ensure fair treatment when disputes arise over contractual rights and obligations. As you know, international trade thrives on the rule of law: without it parties are often reluctant to enter into cross-border commercial transactions or make international investments.
For all these reasons, the Convention is one of the most successful treaties in the area of commercial law, adhered to by 117 States, including the major trading nations. It has served as a model for many subsequent international legislative texts on arbitration. And it proved to the world, as early as the 1950s, that the United Nations could be a constructive, leading force in matters affecting relations among States and among commercial actors on the world scene.
Still, a number of States are yet to become parties to the Convention. As a result, entities investing or doing business in those States lack the legal certainty afforded by the Convention, and businesses cannot be confident that commercial obligations can be enforced. This increases the level of
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risk, meaning that additional security may be required, that negotiations are likely to be more complex and protracted, and that transaction costs will rise. Such risks can adversely affect international trade.
So while we proudly commemorate the Convention and reaffirm our commitment to its tenets, we must also acknowledge that the ultimate goal of the United Nations with regard to the Convention has not yet been achieved. There is a need to promote the Convention so that the gaps in its membership are filled. I hope that this New York Convention Day will be successful in persuading governments that have not yet joined the Convention to do so as soon as possible.
The General Assembly declared the period 1990 to 1999 to be the "United Nations Decade of International Law": a decade in which to make a special effort to advance the development and codification of international law; and in which to raise public awareness about the role of international law in our daily lives.
This gathering is a significant contribution to the Decade.
You have gathered to reaffirm the commitment of the international community to the New York Convention, but also to international law as one of the main pillars of the United Nations global mission.
And you have gathered during a remarkable year: a year in which we also mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the Genocide Convention, and in which efforts to establish an international criminal court are ever so close to fruition.
In that spirit of progress, but without minimizing the tough work ahead, I offer you my best wishes for a productive discussion and a pleasant stay at the United Nations Headquarters.
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