Legal

The Chairman of the General Assembly committee negotiating a comprehensive anti-terrorism convention opened the panel’s fifteenth session this afternoon encouraging delegates to resolve outstanding issues “which have occupied us for some years”, especially since there was now broad agreement on the bulk of the text of the proposed treaty.

Killey Mwitasi of the United Republic of Tanzania, the twenty-third recipient of the Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Memorial Fellowship on the Law of the Sea, completed his fellowship today with the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, where he has been conducting research on judicial decisions dealing with maritime boundary delimitation.

Wrapping up its seven-day session with a final meeting that stretched into the early evening, the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization adopted, as orally revised, its 2011 report, containing recommendations directed to the General Assembly.

The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization today elected additional members of its bureau, as it continued its 2011 session, which runs at Headquarters from 28 February to 9 March.

As the Sixth Committee (Legal), completing its work for the session today, approved seven draft resolutions and one draft decision without a vote, delegations strove to ensure consensus on a draft on measures to eliminate international terrorism. The draft would, among other provisions, have the Assembly strongly condemn all manifestations of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable.

Acting by consensus without a vote, the Sixth Committee (Legal) approved a total of 10 draft resolutions today, among them four relating to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and one to the responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts. The Committee also took note of the report of the terrorism working group and heard the introduction of three additional draft resolutions.

As the Sixth Committee (Legal) concluded its current consideration of the International Law Commission’s annual report, the representative of Sri Lanka called on the Commission’s study group to draft broad guidelines or model clauses on the topic of the “most-favoured-nation clause”, a theme serving as a focus for discussion today along with “treaties over time”, the “obligation to extradite or prosecute” and “shared natural resources”.

As consideration of the International Law Commission’s report continued in the Sixth Committee today, the Committee also heard an address from the President of the International Court of Justice, which was then followed by an interactive dialogue with Committee members.

As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today continued to consider the report of the International Law Commission, with continued focus on expulsion of aliens, effects of armed conflict on treaties and protection of persons in natural disasters, the delegate of Italy called on the Commission to interact with organizations working in the field to protect victims of natural disasters and meet in Geneva with members of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.