Treaty Event Concludes at Headquarters with Actions to Advance Rights of Child, Cooperation to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism
On the side-lines of the busy seventieth general debate at United Nations Headquarters, 24 Member States undertook 31 treaty actions in an annual four-day event that ended yesterday.
Participants included two Heads of State, three Heads of Government and 15 high-level officials at the ministerial level. The treaty actions were made up of 5 acceptances, 8 accessions, 11 ratifications, 6 signatures and 1 withdrawal of reservation.
Much of the attention was focused on Somalia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history.
“By becoming the 196th nation to ratify the Convention, Somalia has committed to uphold the dignity and worth of every child and translate the obligations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into concrete actions, especially for those children in greatest need and at greatest risk,” according to a joint statement by Anthony Lake, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children and Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
In a separate statement, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed Somalia’s ratification of the Convention.
In another action advancing the rights of the child, Austria revoked its reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, agreeing to become fully bound by the Convention.
A spotlight also was on the United States ratification of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in April 2005 and entered into force in July 2007. On 30 September, the United States became the 100th party to the treaty, when it handed over its instrument of ratification to the United Nations.
The Nuclear Terrorism Convention is a cornerstone of global efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction. It details offences relating to unlawful and intentional possession and use of radioactive material or radioactive devices, and use or damage of nuclear facilities. It is designed to promote cooperation among countries through the sharing of information and the provision of assistance for investigations and extraditions.
Some other treaty actions included Singapore’s accession to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons; Mauritius and Somalia becoming parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions; and Mexico, Mongolia and Panama ratifying the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.
Background
In September 2000, the United Nations invited world leaders attending the landmark Millennium Summit to take advantage of their presence at United Nations Headquarters to sign a wide range of major international treaties. Since then, the Treaty Event has been held annually, usually coinciding with the General Debate of the General Assembly in September. Since 2000, the United Nations Treaty Events have resulted in 1,990 treaty-related actions, including signatures, ratifications and accessions.
For more information on the 2015 Treaty Event, please visit http://treaties.un.org.
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