A/33/PV.89 General Assembly

The Rapporteur of the Special Political Committee, Mr. Abdul- dayem M. Mubarez, presented the Committee's report {A/33/510j on this item at the 87th plenary meeting. The draft resolution recommended by the Committee appears in paragraph 14 of document A/33/51o. 2. Mr. AwARD (Norway): As members know, yesterday, in my capacity as Chairman of the group of Western European and other States, I informed the Assembly of a proposal that had been made that could form the basis of a consensus-namely, that we accept the draft resolution adopted in the Special Political Committee, with the following changes: that the group of Western European and other States be given another vice-presidency of the Assemblyand that operative paragraph 3 be deleted. 3. As I understand it now, some other groups have come forward with the proposal that operative paragraph 3 be amended by changing "thirty-fourth session" to "thirty- fifth session". If that Is acceptable to the other groups, my group could go along with that. But I should like to hear if there can be a consensus on this. • Resumed from the 87th meeting. NEW Y,ORK

The representative of Norway has proposed that the number of vice-presidencies of the General Assembly be increased from 21 to 22 and that the additional vice-presidency be allotted to the group of Western European and other States. May I ask the spokesmen for the various regional groups whether they accept the proposal submitted by Norway?

On behalf of the Asian group, I would emphasize that we tried very hard to reach a consensus; therefore the group agreed to support the proposal to give an additional seat to the group of Western European and other States and to accept the amendment to operative paragraph 3 under which the item would be included in the agenda of the thirty-fifth session. We hope that all the other groupscan go along with those proposals so that we can settle this matter right now.

I wish on behalf of the African group of States to extend our profound gratitude to the representative of Norway, who has worked tirelessly with us to achieve a consensus on the problem before us. It is in this context that we viewthe proposals he has just made on behalf of the group of Western European and other States. The African group is extremely grateful to the Asian group for the moderation it has shown in accepting the amendment relating to the establishment of an additional vice-presidency, We would associate ourselves with that acceptance. 7. We can also join in a consensus on the change in operative paragraph 3 of the draft resolution whereby the item would be included in the agenda of the thirty-fifth rather than the thirty-fourth sessionof the Assembly.

As Chairman of the Latin American group of States I should like to say how pleased we are that we seem to be very close to adopting this draft resolution by consensus. 9. We are extremely grateful to our friends from the group of Western European and other States for the efforts they have made. We are very grateful also to the representatives of the African and Asian groups. 10. The Latin American group has no difficulty in accepting the amendments which, as I understand it, were presented by the representative of Norway as Chairman of his group and which consist of establishing an additional vice-presidency, to be allocated to the group of Western European and other States and changing operative para- graph 3 to read that the question of the composition of the relevant organs of the United Nations would be included in Against: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, ByeIo- russian Soviet Socialist Republic, Canada, Czechoslovakia" Denmark, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, Germany, Federal Republic of, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America 12. My delegation cannot agree to a hasty solution being adopted on such a complicated political issue at the very last minute, just before this session of the Assembly is to adjourn. That is why my delegation cannot go along with the proposal made by the representative of Norway on behalf of the group of Western European and other States and I think that our delegation is not the only one in that position.

It is with deep regret that I have noted that there will be no consensus on this matter. The proposals that were put forward were intended to be the basis of such a consensus and it was a condition of the Western European group that they should be. 14. In the circumstances I think we are back to square one, and the proposals that were made to form the basis of consensus no longer have any relevance. Implementation by States of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961: report of the Secretary-General 15. Our group worked very hard to achieve this consensus, which we think is very important. But I understand that one of the groups cannot go along with it and there is nothing more to be done. I very much regret this.

We shall now take a decision on the draft resolution entitled "Question of the composition of the relevant organs of the United Nations: amendments to rules 31 and 38 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly", which has been recommended by the Special Political Committee in paragraph i4 of document A/33/510. A recorded vote has been requested. Registration and publication of treaties and international agreements pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the . United Nations: report of the Seaetary-General 17. Mr. OMAR (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya), Rapporteur of the Sixth Committee (interpretation from Arabic): I have the honour to present to the General Assembly the three remaining reports of the Sixth Committee to this session of the General Assembly. The Sixth Committee adopted the relevant draft resolutions by consensus. In favour: Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burma, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Empire; Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Democratic Yemen, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, libyan Arab Jarnahiriya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, SwaziIand, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, 19. The draft resolution recommended by the Sixth Committee under item 114 is to be found in paragraph 288 of its report"[A/33/419]. Under the draft resolution the General Assembly would recommend that the International Law Commission should continue its work on matters being dealt with by the Commission. The General Assembly would also invite all States, organs of the United Nations which have competence in the subject-matter and interested intergovernmental organizations to submit, not later than 31 December 1979, their written comments and obser- Abstaining: Afghanistan, Israel, Romania AGENDAITEM 114 Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its thirtieth session REPORT OF THE SIXTH COMMITTEE(A/33/419) AGENDAITEM 116 REPORT OF THE SIXTH COMMITTEE(A/33/465)

The General Assembly will first consider the report of the Sixth Committee on agenda item 114[A/33/419]. We shall now take a decision on the draft resolution entitled "Report of the International Law Commission", which has been recommended by the Sixth Committee in paragraph 288 of its report. The Sixth Committee adopted that draft resolution by consensus. May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to adopt the draft resolution?

The General Assembly will now consider the report of the Sixth Committee on agenda item 116 [A/33/465J. We shall take a decision on the draft resolution entitled "Implementation by States of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Rela- tions of 1961" which has been recommended by the Sixth Committee in paragraph 7 of its report. The Sixth Com- mittee adopted that draft resolution by consensus. May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to adopt the draft resolution? 27. We turn first to draft resolution A. The Sixth Committee adopted that draft resolution by consensus. May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to adopt draft resolution A? Draft resolution A wasadopted (resolution 33/141 A).

We turn now to draft resolution B. The Sixtf Committee adopted that draft resolution by consensus. May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to adopt draft resolution B? Draft resolution B wasadopted (resolution 33/141 D).

I call on the representative of Israel.

I should like it to appear in the record that this statement is being made on behalf of our Ambassador, Mr. Rosenne, who unfortunately is unable to be here today. 31. My delegation wishes to take this opportunity to express its great satisfaction at the adoption of the draft resolution that was proposed by consensus by the Sixth Committee under agenda item 119 and has now been adopted by consensus by the General Assembly. In effect, subject perhaps to minor variants. this draft resolution represents the first main amendment to the regulations governing the publication of international treaties since the memorandum approved by the Council of the League of Nations meeting in Rome on 19 May 1920. 1 I shall come back to that in a minute. 32. Ever since the question of computerization of the United Nations Treaty Series was first raised in 197~, my delegation has been keenly interested in the progress of this matter. As far as concerns the registration of treaties, ,",'.re were glad to observe that the effective implementation of the computerization of the Treaty Section could lead to substantial savings of manpower in the United Nations as well as in the individual treaty sections of each State, besides increasing the general accuracy of the information to be provided by the computerized treaty section. We therefore followed closely the discussions on this matter which took place in the Fifth and Sixth Committees during the period from 1973 onwards. and were glad to be able to take partIr the work of the informal working groups set up by the Sixth Committee last year ~:':1d tills. There are now some problems of "debugging" which will require looking into: but I am sure that all these difficulties will be overcome. 34. The effect of the amendment is to allow the Secre- tariat a certain limited, fully controllable and reversible discretion to exempt from publication in the existing United Nations Treaty Series treaties in force which have already been published elsewhere by the United Nations Secretariat or by the secretariats of the specialized agencies or other related agencies, which I understand includes the IAEA and in all probability will include any new authority which may be set up by the Third United Nations Conference on the LclW of the Sea. According to the report of the Informal Working Group established by the Sixth Committee, document A/C.6/33/5/Add.l, annex Il, para- graph 16, this is liable to reduce the number of annual volumes of the Treaty Series from 52 to 32 volumes per year, that is to say 20 volumes occupying approximately three-quarters of a metre of bookshelf space. This repre- sents a considerable saving in money for the United Nations; for all delegations in New York-for which the renting of bookshelving space is a serious item in their annual maintenance budget-and for foreign ministries at home and university and legal libraries, where the same considerations apply. However, in our opinion this is not enough. 35. The resolution which has just been adopted requests the Secretary-General to submit further proposals to the next session of the General Assembly. 36. In this connexion my delegation wishes to make the following informal suggestion, which we should like the Secretary-General to consider in due course. 37. Modern multilateral treaties are concluded usually in five or six, or perhaps even more, authentic texts. Yet it is virtually impossible for an interested Government or scholar to obtain such treaties in all their authentic texts until after they have entered into force and been published in the United Nations Treaty Series, where, as we know, there are also serious additional arrears. 38. In paragraph. 12 of annex I tc document A/C.6/33/ 5/Add.l we learn that the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, one of the most important treaties concluded under the auspices of the United Nations, has still not been published in a single volume in all its authentic versions, and if I might add here a personal note-this, of course, is being said by Ambassador Rosenne-this caused me considerable difficulty last year when I was preparing a careful Hebrew translation of this Convention, and I needed to refer to all the authentic versions to establish the meaning of a certain passage. 40. In making this suggestion my delegation is inspired by certain observations made by the Secretary-General of the League of Nations in 1920 which we think are worth repeating. The first is this: "Publicity has for a long time been considered as a source of moral strength in the administration of National Law. It should equally strengthen the laws and engage- ments which exist between nations. It will promote public control. It will awaken public interest. It will remove causes for distrust and conflict. Publicity alone will enable the League of Nations to extend a moral sanction to the contractual obligations of its Members. It will, moreover, contribute to the formation of a clear and indisputable system of International LaW."4 41. The second is this: "It may prove convenient, however, for various reasons, for the Parties to present a Treaty or International Engagement for Registration as soon as the text has been finally decided upon, even if exchange of ratifications between them still has to take place at a later date. The Secretary-General will, of course, have to see that, if a Treaty or Engagement be published at this stage, it is made clear that the Parties have not yet fmally entered into the Treaty or Engagement. "In the event of a Treaty or Engagement being presented for registration before it is fmally entered into, the Parties will no doubt inform the Secretariat of the later act by which they definitely bring the treaty into force."s 42. In making the foregoing suggestions my delegation also allows itself to recall certain remarks made in 1962 by the International Court of Justice regarding the real implications of the obligation concerning the publication of the international treaties. It is well known that Article 18 of the Covenant of the League of Nations was designed to give forma! and binding expression to the concept enun- 2 Document A/32/144, annexes I and IL 3 United Nations, Treaty Series, voL 75, Nos. 97()'973. 4 See League of Nations, op: cit., p, 9. 5tua; p. 11. 6 See South West Africa Cases (Ethiopia v. South Africa; Liberia v. South Africa), Preliminary Objections, Judgment of21 December 1962: LC.1. Reports 1962, p. 332. 44. Miss COURATIER (Frar..»] (interpretation from French): My delegation understands very well the circum- stances which led to a delay in the publication in all the languages of the Organization of the documents on which we have just taken decisions and in particular the document relating to the report of the Intemationallaw Commission. However, we wish to place it on record that we may wish to make some reservations on the French text of document A/33/419 when it is issued.