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The Practice of the United Nations with Respect to Reservations to Multipartite Instruments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Abstract

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Copyright © by the American Society of International Law 1950

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References

1 This view was expressed in a memorandum submitted by the Director of the International Labor Office to the League of Nations Secretariat in connection with the examination by the Committee of Experts for the Progressive Development of International Law of the question of the admissibility of reservations to general (i.e., multipartite) conventions. See League of Nations Doc. C.212.1927.V.

2 Cf. Art 105 of the Havana Charter for an International Trade Organization.

3 Hudson, , International Legislation, Vol. II (1922–1924), p. 1120 Google Scholar.

4 This practice was viewed with approval by the Council of the League and recommended for use in connection with other technical subjects. See the Resolution of June 17, 1927. League of Nations Official Journal, 1927, p. 800.

5 See pp. 122, 125, 127, post.

6 League of Nations Doc. C.346(I)M.142(I).1930.II.

7 See Harvard Research in International Law, Draft Convention on Treaties, this Journal, Supp., Vol. 29 ((1935), p. 845.

8 In this respect the practice of the Secretariat of the League of Nations has been followed. See, as to that, Hudson, , International Legislation, Vol. I, p. Ii Google Scholar. See, however, William, Sanders in this Journal, Vol. 33 (1939), p. 488 Google Scholar, where this practice is distinguished from that of the Pan American Union. He refers to the difference in the procedure followed in securing the acceptance of reservations by the other Contracting Parties, and to the opposing views regarding the effect of the non-acceptance of a reservation by one of the Contracting Parties.

9 E.g., Convention Concerning Economic Statistics, 1928, Art. 17, Hudson, op. cit., Vol. IV (1928–1929), p. 2576; also Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Terrorism, 1937, Art. 23, Hudson, op. cit., Vol. VII (1935–1937), p. 862.

10 Subsequently the General Assembly adopted a resolution requesting Members which had not acceded to the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations or which had acceded to it with reservations as to its section 18(b), to take the necessary action, legislative or other, to exempt their nationals employed by the United Nations from national income taxation with respect to their salaries and emolumente paid to them by the United Nations, or in any other manner to grant relief from double taxation to such nationals. See U.N. Doc. A/810, Besolution 239 (III) C.

11 See the statements of various delegations in General Assembly, 3rd Sess., Pt. I, Official Records, Sixth Committee, p. 709 et seq.

12 See the statement by the U. S. delegate in General Assembly, 1st Sess., Pt. I, Official Records, p. 454.

13 See note 11, above.

14 “Le Gouvernement Français se réserve le droit de verser tout ou partie de sa contribution en francs ou en nature; en outre, et par application du 7ème Alinéa du Préambule de la Constitution de l’Organisation Internationale des Réfugiés qui dispose que cet organisme n’a pas de caractère permanent, les versements budgétaires prévus pour la France ne pourront être effectués que pendant une période maxima de trois fois dome mois.”

15 Article 18 (2) reads: “This Constitution shall come into force when at least fifteen states, whose required contributions to Fart I of the operational budget as set forth in Annex II of this Constitution amount to not less than seventy-five per cent of the total thereof, have become parties to it.”

16 World Health Organization, Official Records, No. 13, p. 341; see also pp. 77–80. For detailed discussion on the background, see Oscar, Schachter, “The Development of International Law through the Legal Opinions of the United Nations Secretariat,” British Yearbook of International Law, Vol. XXV (1948), pp. 91132 Google Scholar.

17 It may be noted that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was not then, and is not yet, in force in accordance with its provisions for entry into force, but applies in virtue of the Protocol of Provisional Application concluded at Geneva on Oct. 30, 1947.

18 Section IV reads as follows:

“IV. The following Article shall be inserted in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade after Article XXXIV:

“Article XXXV

“1. Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 5(b) of Article XXV or to the obligations of a contracting party pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article XXIX, this Agreement, or alternatively Article II of this Agreement, shall not apply as between any contracting party and any other contracting party if:

(a) the two contracting parties have not entered into tariff negotiations with each other, and

(b) either of the contracting parties, at the time either becomes a contracting party, does not consent to such application.

“2. The CONTRACTING PARTIES may, at any time before the Havana Charter enters into force, review the operation of this Article in particular cases at the request of any contracting party and make appropriate recommendations.”

19 For the terms of the invitation see p. 125, post.

20 U.N. Doc. GATT/CP.3/19, p. 3.

21 U.N. Doc. GATT/CP.3/19, p. 5.

22 See U.N. Press Release L/110, Dec. 16, 1949.

23 Each special procès-verbal contained the following statement :

“At the time of signing the present Convention the delegation of the [USSR, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia] deems it essential to state the following:

“As regards Article IX: the [USSE, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia] does not consider as binding upon itself the provisions of Article IX which provides that disputes between the Contracting Parties with regard to the interpretation, application and implementation of the present Convention shall be referred for examination to the International Court at the request of any party to the dispute, and declares that, as regards the International Court’s jurisdiction in respect of disputes concerning the interpretation, application and implementation of the Convention, [the USSR, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia] will, as hitherto, maintain the position that in each particular case the agreement of all parties to the dispute is essential for the submission of any particular dispute to the International Court for decision.

“As regards Article XII: the [USSR, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia] declares that it is not in agreement with Article XII of the Convention and considers that all the provisions of the Convention should extend to non-self-governing territories, including trust territories.”

24 See the resolution adopted by the General Assembly on Dec. 3, 1949, regarding the invitations to be addressed to non-member states to become parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide pursuant to Art. XI of the Convention. U.N. Doc. A/1202, Dec. 6, 1949.

25 Under Art. XIII of the Convention the Secretary General is required on the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession shall have been deposited to draw up a special procès-verbal and transmit a copy of it to each Member of the United Nations and each of the non-member states contemplated in Art. XI. The Convention will come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.