United Nations Juridical Yearbook, 1999
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Extract from: UNITED NATIONS JURIDICAL YEARBOOK 1999 Part Two. Legal activities of the United Nations and related intergovernmental organizations Chapter III. General review of the legal activities of the United Nations and related intergovernmental organizations Copyright (c) United Nations CONTENTS (continued) 6. United Nations Industrial Development Organization Basic Cooperation Agreement between the United Nations In- dustrial Development Organization and the Government of the Republic of Ghana. Signed on 2 December 1999 131 7. International Atomic Energy Agency (a) Exchange of letters constituting an agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Federative Republic of Brazil in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. Signed at Vienna on 31 May and 30 July 1999 132 (b) Protocol Additional to the Agreement between the Inter- national Atomic Energy Agency and the Republic of Indo- nesia for the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Signed at Vienna on 29 September 1999 133 Part Two. Legal activities of the United Nations and related intergovernmental organizations CHAPTER III. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE LEGAL ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND RELATED INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANI- ZATIONS A. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE LEGAL ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITED NATIONS 1. Disarmament and related matters 147 2. Other political and security questions 151 3. Environmental, economic, social, humanitarian and cultural questions 153 4. Law of the sea 177 5. International Court of Justice 179 6. International Law Commission 219 7. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law . 220 8. Legal questions dealt with by the Sixth Committee of the Gen- eral Assembly and by ad hoc legal bodies 221 9. United Nations Institute for Training and Research 225 B. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE LEGAL ACTIVITIES OF INTERGOV- ERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS RELATED TO THE UNITED NA- TIONS 1. International Labour Organization 226 2. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organ- ization 228 vn CONTENTS (continued) Page 3. World Health Organization . 232 4. World Bank 234 5. International Monetary Fund 238 6. International Civil Aviation Organization 244 7. Universal Postal Union 246 8. International Maritime Organization 247 9. World Intellectual Property Organization 253 10. United Nations Industrial Development Organization .... 259 11. World Trade Organization 261 12. International Atomic Energy Agency 272 CHAPTER IV. TREATIES CONCERNING INTERNATIONAL LAW CON- CLUDED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND RE- LATED INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS A. TREATIES CONCERNING INTERNATIONAL LAW CONCLUDED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE UNITED NATIONS 1. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Done at New York on 6 October 1999 283 2. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. Done at New York on 9 December 1999 287 B. TREATIES CONCERNING INTERNATIONAL LAW CONCLUDED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZA- TIONS RELATED TO THE UNITED NATIONS 1. International Labour Organization International Labour Organization Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. Done at Geneva on 17 June 1999 299 2. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza- tion Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Pro- tection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Done at The Hague on 26 March 1999 303 3. International Civil Aviation Organization Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for Interna- tional Carriage by Air. Done at Montreal on 28 May 1999 318 CHAPTER V. DECISIONS OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND RELATED INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANI- ZATIONS A. DECISIONS OF THE UNITED NATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL V1U Chapter III GENERAL REVIEW OF THE LEGAL ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND RELATED INTERGOVERNMEN- TAL ORGANIZATIONS A. General review of the legal activities of the United Nations 1. DISARMAMENT AND RELATED MATTERS' (a) Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues During 1999, differences among Member States persisted in all disarmament forums—the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, the United Nations Dis- armament Commission and the First Committee of the General Assembly—con- cerning issues related to nuclear disarmament. At the bilateral level, the United States of America and the Russian Federation continued to reduce their nuclear arsenals on the basis of the START treaties.2 No new negotiations were begun, although some discussions on START III3 were car- ried out in the second half of the year. Preparations for the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 19684 continued at the third session of the Preparatory Committee; however, the Committee was unable to agree on any substantive recommendations to the Review Conference, and adopted decisions only on procedural issues. Regarding IAEA safeguards, as of the end of the year, the 1997 Model Proto- col Additional to Safeguards Agreements5 had been signed by 45 States, including four nuclear-weapon States and Cuba, and was in force in eight States.6 The Model Protocol provides IAEA with the legal authority to implement a more effective safe- guards system to detect and verify possible non-peaceful nuclear activities in a State at an early stage. When the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) suspended, as of mid-December 1998, its Security Council-mandated activities related to verifying Iraq's declarations concerning full, final and complete disclosure of its chemical, biological and missile programmes, the monitoring of Iraq's nuclear weapons pro- grammes by IAEA also was suspended. The Agency's inability to implement its mandate in Iraq, under the relevant Security Council resolutions, rendered it unable to provide any assurances that Iraq was in compliance with its obligations under those resolutions. Regarding nuclear terrorism, the General Conference of IAEA, at its forty-third session, adopted a resolution entitled "Measures against Illicit Trafficking in Nu- clear Materials and Other Radioactive Sources",7 in which it welcomed the activi- ties in the fields of prevention, detection and response undertaken by its Secretariat, and invited all States to participate in the illicit trafficking database programme on a voluntary basis. The General Assembly, in its resolution 54/110 of 9 December 147 1999, decided that the Ad Hoc Committee charged with elaborating a draft interna- tional convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism8 should continue its work and should address the means of further developing a comprehensive legal framework of conventions dealing with international terrorism.9 Questions related to nuclear safety and radioactive waste continued to be of concern to a great number of Member States and were the subject of a number of resolutions of the General Conference of IAEA, e.g., on "The safety of radiation sources and the security of radiological materials"; "Safety of transport of radioac- tive materials"; and "The radiological protection of patients".10 The first Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the 1994 Convention on Nuclear Safety" was held at Vienna in April 1999 and featured presentation of national reports of States parties on steps and measures they were taking to implement the Convention. Consideration by the General Assembly The General Assembly, at its fifty-fourth session, on the recommendation of the First Committee, took action on 12 draft resolutions dealing with nuclear disar- mament, adopting them on 1 December 1999. These resolutions included resolution 54/54 D, entitled "Nuclear disarmament with a view to the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons"; resolution 54/54 K, entitled "Reducing nuclear danger"; resolution 54/52, entitled "Conclusion of ef- fective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons"; resolution 54/63, entitled "Comprehen- sive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty";12 resolution 54/54 A entitled "Preservation of and compliance with the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems";13 resolution 54/54 Q, entitled "Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons"; and resolution 54/54 C, entitled "Prohibition of the dumping of radioactive wastes". (¿>) Biological and chemical weapons conventions Efforts to strengthen the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention14 through the elaboration of a protocol on verification and confidence-building measures contin- ued throughout the year in the framework of the Ad Hoc Group, with all States parties agreeing that the completion of the work was vital and should be done by 2000. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) contin- ued its activities under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention,15 the Conference of States Parties holding its fourth session at The Hague from 28 June to 2 July 1999. The Conference approved the draft relationship agreement between the United Nations and OPCW, and also approved model facility agreements for chemical weapons storage and for chemical weapons production facilities. In July 1999, fol- lowing the departure of UNSCÔM