PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘FOCUS 2004: TREATIES ON THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS’

press conference on ‘focus 2004:  treaties on the protection of civilians’

Twenty-four treaties on the protection of civilians would be the focus of the 2004 treaty-signing and -ratification event to be held from 21 to 24 September, Palitha Kohona, Chief of the Treaty Section in the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Launching the booklet Focus 2004:  Treaties on the Protection of Civilians, co-published with the Department of Political Affairs, he said the event would coincide, as usual, with the beginning of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly.  The Secretary-General had already sent out invitations to heads of State and government and a good response was expected.  By their participation they would express publicly their commitment to the international rule of law. 

He said the treaty event dated back to the Millennium Summit of 2000, when the Secretary-General established the first one to promote broader participation by Member States in the multilateral treaty framework underpinning much of today’s international relations.  A special event held in 2001 focused on terrorism-related treaties owing to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.  In the five treaty events that have taken place since 2000, 828 treaty actions have taken place.  More than 500 multilateral treaties are deposited with the Secretary-General.

This year’s event would focus on treaties dealing with the protection of civilians, who were the primary victims of today’s violent conflicts, he said.  The book brought together all the great human rights treaties -- the two international covenants on human rights, the conventions on the rights of women, children, migrant workers, and the racism convention -- with those more directly linked with armed conflict:  the Genocide Convention, the Convention against Torture, the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations Convention on the protection of United Nations and Associated Personnel.

In a response to a question, Mr. Kohona said that many of the conventions did not have universal participation and were legally binding only on participating States.  The aim of the event, therefore, was to get as many treaty actions as possible.

In response to a question as to whether former High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata had helped to get the treaty events under way, he said that some treaties had been initiated in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva and others in the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee (Legal) and in the Secretariat.  However, there were treaties dealing specifically with refugees.

Asked whether the treaty event owed its timing to a widespread feeling that States did not adhere to international law, he replied the aim was to encourage greater adherence at the domestic level.  By and large, States did adhere to international law, which was why any breach of it was highlighted.  If breaches were common, they would cease to be news.

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