Richard Hartzman is a New York City practitioner, a
member of the ASIL, and one of two individuals designated to
assist the ASIL in promoting its Observer Status at the UN.
He has kindly prepared the following remarks of interest to
UNDIG members regarding a proposed UN Conference:
The Sixth Committee and the 48th Session of the General
Assembly are considering plans for a UN congress on Public
International Law as part of the activities of the UN Decade of
International Law. The purpose of such a congress would be to
promote the role of International Law in international relations.
Prospects for approval of the congress are good.
A preliminary plan has been prepared by the Sixth Committee
(UN Doc. A/48/435) pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 47/32
adopted in November 1992.
The plan recommends that the congress be convened in New
York at the UN Headquarters not earlier than 1995 for a period of
three to five days. The congress would be held (1) in
conjunction with a regular session of the General Assembly (Sixth
Committee), or (2) as a session of the Special Committee on the
Charter of the UN and on the Strengthening of the Role of the
Organization, or (3) at some time independent of any other
meeting.
Participation would be based on formal requests for
admission, with provisional limits placed on the number of
participants from a particular region or country. The
preliminary plan recommends broadly based participation coming
largely from the following ten categories of individuals:
(1) Members of the International Court of Justice;
(2) Members of the International Law Commission;
(3) Diplomats/delegates to the Sixth Committee;
(4) Officials from the legal offices of national foreign affairs and justice ministries;
(5) National judges;
(6) Members of parliaments;
(7) Professors of Public International Law and related subjects;
(8) Officials from legal offices of international organizations;
(9) Representatives of NGOs active in the area of International Law and which have consultative status with ECOSOC (this includes the ASIL); and
(10) Representatives of the media dealing with issues of international law on a regular basis.
The precise topics of discussion and financing for the
congress are "TBA." It appears that at least some of the costs
of financing, including travel and subsistence for designated
speakers, will have to be borne by sources external to the UN
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