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The UN75 Declaration, Our Common Agenda and the development of international law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2022

Ana Peyró Llopis
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Abstract

In the declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, Member States requested that the Secretary-General provide recommendations to advance “Our Common Agenda” and to respond to current and future challenges. The Secretary-General issued a report entitled “Our Common Agenda” on 5 August 2021, which, among others, reinforces the role of the United Nations as a place of choice for the development of international law, also putting in context the role and specific prerogatives of the Secretary-General in the promotion of international law. The declaration and “Our Common Agenda” have also presented an opportunity to counter sentiments regarding a supposed general decline in respect for international law.

Keywords

Development of international lawrole of the United NationsOur Common AgendaUN75 Declarationcrisis of multilateralismcompliance with international law
Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 104 , Issue 920-921: How International Humanitarian Law Develops , August 2022 , pp. 2170 - 2176
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC.

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Footnotes

*

The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.

References

1 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 75/1, Declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, UN Doc. A/RES/75/1, 21 September 2020.

2 Ibid., operative para. 10.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid., operative para. 9.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., operative para. 20.

8 Report of the Secretary-General, Our Common Agenda, UN Doc. A/75/982, 5 August 2021.

9 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 76/6, UN Doc. A/RES/76/6, 15 November 2021, operative para. 1.

10 Ibid., operative para. 2.

11 Ibid., operative para. 3.

12 Our Common Agenda, above note 8, para. 96.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Resolution 174/(II), Statute of the International Law Commission, New York, 21 November 1947.

16 See, in particular, the Conclusions on Identification of Customary International Law, Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 2018, Vol. II, Part Two. See the draft Conclusions on Identification of Customary International Law, UN Doc. A/73/10, 2018, available at: https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/commentaries/1_13_2018.pdf (all internet references were accessed in October 2022).

17 Article 1(4) of the Charter of the United Nations: “The Purposes of the United Nations are: […] 4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.”

18 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 73/27, Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security, UN Doc. A/RES/73/27, 11 December 2018 (Open-ended Working Group on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security); United Nations General Assembly Resolution 73/266, Advancing responsible State behaviour in cyberspace in the context of international security, UN Doc. A/RES/73/266, 2 January 2019 (Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing responsible State behaviour in cyberspace in the context of international security); United Nations General Assembly Resolution 75/240, Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security, UN Doc. A/RES/75/240, 31 December 2020 (Open-ended Working Group on Security of and in the use of Information and Communications Technologies 2021–2025).

19 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 72/249, International legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, UN Doc. A/RES/72/249, 24 December 2017.

20 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 75/1, Declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, UN Doc. A/RES/75/1, 21 September 2020, operative para. 5.

21 António Guterres, “Global Wake Up Call”, United Nations Secretary-General, 3 July 2020, available at: www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/articles/2020-07-03/global-wake-call.

22 As of 19 September 2022, the International Court of Justice had been seized with thirty new contentious cases between 2013 and 2022 (twenty-two between 2003 and 2012; thirty-four between 1993 and 2002).

23 United Nations Secretariat, Note by the Secretariat, Historical and analytical note on the practices and working methods of the Main Committees, fifty-eighth session, Agenda Item 55, Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly, UN Doc. A/58/CRP.5, 10 March 2004, para. 75.