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Some Aspects of the work of the Legal Committee of the General Assembly During the Second Part of the First Session

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Wellington Koo Jr.
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American Journal of International Law , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , July 1947 , pp. 635 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1947

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References

1 Three Members were added to it with the admission of Afghanistan, Iceland, and Sweden to membership in the United Nations. (Journal No. 37, Supplement A—A/PV/48)

2 The rest of the bureau of the Committee was as follows: Vice Chairman, The Hon. Per Federspiel (Denmark); Rapporteur, Professor K. H. Bailey (Australia); Secretary, Dr. Yuen-Li Liang, Director of Division of Development and Codification of International Law of the United Nations.

3 United Nations Document A/C.6/40.

Sub-Committee 1 was composed of the Representatives of the following countries: Belgium, Canada, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Norway, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom, United States of America.

4 Sub-Committee 2 was composed of the Representatives of the following countries: Australia, Colombia, France, Greece, India, Netherlands, Peru, Syria, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Yugoslavia.

5 United Nations Document A/266.

6 Article 102, Charter of the United Nations.

7 Resolutions of the General Assembly, First Part of the First Session, Resolution adopted on the Report of the Sixth Committee No. 7, p. 33.

8 United Nations Document A/138.

9 The Sub-Committee considered written proposals submitted by the following delegations, not represented on the Sub-Committee: Argentina, France, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Uurguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. Two of the proposals submitted were regarded as beyond the competence of the Sub-Committee namely a proposal that an effort should be made to interpret the meaning of paragraph 2 of Article 102 of the Charter and a proposal that the regulations should specifically provide that all agreements concluded with Quisling Governments are void and so not registrable under the Charter.

10 United Nations Document A/C.6/125. The discussions in Sub-Committee 1 with respect to the Preamble and each of the Articles are summarized in a memorandum prepared by the Secretariat: Document A/C.6/124.

11 United Nations Document A/266.

12 United Nations Document A/98. Text of the United States Letter to the Secretary-General.

13 United Nations Document A/C.6/54.

14 United Nations Journal No. 39, Supplement 6—A/C.6/77.

15 “The Sixth Committee felt that since the proposed committee would be concerned with methods and procedures basic to the development and formulation of international law, it should be composed exclusively of governmental representatives of Members of the United Nations”: United Nations Document A/222, Report of the Sixth Committee.

16 “It was felt that this number was not so large as to impair the efficiency of the Sub-Committee, nor so small as to prevent the principal legal systems of the world from being represented”: the same.

17 Resolution 94(1). Resolutions of the General Assembly, A/64/Add.1.

18 United Nations Journal No. 58: Supplement A—A/PV/55, pp. 470–473.

19 United Nations Document A/C.6/69.

20 United Nations Document A/C.6/116.

21 Journal of the United Nations No. 56, Supplement 6—A/C.6/123, p. 127.

22 The same, and Journal of the United Nations No. 58, Supplement 6—A/C.6/127, p. 129.

23 Journal of the United Nations No. 58, as cited.

24 “Mr. Fahy (United States) stressed the similarity between paragraph 1 of this resolution and the resolution on the principles recognized by the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal; neither of them accepted as a defence that those accused of the crimes in question acted on the orders of superior officers.” Journal of the United Nations No. 58: Supplement 6—A/C.6/127, p. 131.

25 United Nations Document A/C.6/64. Letter from M. P. H. Spaak, President of the General Assembly, to Dr. Roberto Jimenez, Chairman of the Sixth Committee, dated 13 November, 1946.

26 United Nations Document A/BUR/50. The operative part of the resolution reads as follows: “Be It Resolved that the United Nations Assembly draws the attention of the Social and Economic Council to the crime of genocide and invites the Council to study this problem and to prepare a report of the possibilities of declaring genocide an International Crime and assuring international co-operation for its prevention and punishment and also recommending among others that genocide and related offenses should be dealt with by National Legislations in the same way as other international crimes such as piracy, trade in women, children, and slaves, and others.”

27 Journal of the United Nations No. 41, Supplement 6—A/C.6/84. Journal of the United Nations No. 46, Supplement 6—A/C.6/91. Journal of the United Nations No. 47, Supplement 6—A/C.6/94.

28 The text of the amendments presented by the United Kingdom, India, Prance, and the U.S.S.R. are all contained in United Nations Document A/C.6/83.

29 Remarks of M. Chaumont (Prance). United Nations Document A/C.6/96, as cited.

30 United Nations Document A/C.6/95.

31 United Nations Document A/C.6/94.

32 By its Resolution of March 28, 1947, the Economic and Social Council instructed the Secretary-General of the United Nations to undertake the necessary studies with a view to drawing up a draft convention on the subject, and, after consultation with the Committee on Development and Codification of International Law set up by the General Assembly, and after reference to all Member Governments for comment, to submit a draft convention to the next session of the Economic and Social Council. United Nations Document E/325, p. 5.

33 Journal of the United Nations No. 58: Supplement 6—A/C.6/127.

34 United Nations Document A/221.

35 Journal of the United Nations No. 56: Supplement A—A/PV/55, p. 476.

36 United Nations Documents A/149, A/68, A/68/Add.1, A/68/Add.2, A/167, A/167/Add.1, A/C.1 and 6/12.

37 United Nations Document A/66, Item 31.

38 United Nations Document A/C.6/40, as cited.

39 United Nations Document A/C.1 and 6/3 (A/C.1 and 6/3).

40 United Nations Document A/C.1 and 6/12.

41 United Nations Document A/C.1 and 6/20.

42 Votes in favor: Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Chile, China, Colombia Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Philippine Republic, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia. Votes against: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, Union of South Africa, United Kingdom, United States of America. Abstentions: Denmark, Ecuador, Honduras, New Zealand, Panama, Turkey. Journal of the United Nations No. 48: Supplement Nos. 1 and 6—A/C.1&6/23.

43 See for instance the remarks of Mr. Gromyko, Delegate of the Soviet Union, who said: “To treat the Indian question as a legal matter would tend to minimize the political importance and weaken the prestige of the United Nations, one of whose noblest tasks was to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.” Journal No. 44: Supplement No. 1&6—A/C.1 and 6/9, page 30.

44 Dr. van Roijen (Netherlands) “noted that there were three types of exceptions to the inviolability of domestic jurisdiction referred to in the paragraph in question:

  1. (1)

    (1) Exceptions expressly recognized by the Charter of which there was at present only one, relating to enforcement measures imposed by the Security Council.

  2. (2)

    (2) Exceptions derived from the general rules of international law, for instance in cases of extreme persecution of minorities.

  3. (3)

    (3) Exceptions established by special rules of international law, that is to say, those arising from treaty obligations.

The present case did not some into the first of these categories, nor, in his opinion, into the second; he was not, however, convinced & that the Agreements of 1927 and 1932 did not amount to treaty obligations, which might lift the matter out of the sphere of purely domestic affairs.” The same, page 24.

45 Journal of the United Nations No. 54: Supplement A—A/PV/50, A/PV/51, Journal No. 55: Supplement A—A/PV/52.

46 United Nations Document A/205.

47 Journal of the United Nations No. 55: Supplement A/PV/52.

48 Same.

49 United Nations Document A/182.

50 Journal of the United Nations No. 29: Supplement A—A/PV/47, p. 30.

51 United Nations Document A/C.5/98 or A/C.6/103.

52 United Nations Document A/C.6/70.

53 Rule 75 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure for the General Assembly reads: “If two or more amendments are moved to a proposal, the General Assembly shall first vote on the amendment furtherest removed in substance from the original proposal and then on the amendment next furtherest removed, and so on, until all the amendments have been put to the vote.”

54 Journal of the United Nations No. 55: Supplement 6—A/C.6/122.

55 United Nations Document A/201.

56 Resolutions of the Economic and Social Council on the Draft Agreements, 17 October 1946, Document A/119, The texts of the Draft Agreements with the ILO, UNESCO, FAO, and ICAO may be found in Documents A/72, A/77, A/78, and A/106 respectively.

57 Journal of the United Nations No. 52: Supplement No. 6—A/C.6/111.

58 The same, pp. 105–106.

59 Journal of the United Nations No. 52, as cited.

60 Motion Presented by the Delegations of France and Belgium, A/C.6/109.

61 United Nations Document A/202.

62 United Nations Document A/217.

63 United Nations Document A/226.

64 United Nations Document A/C.5/122 or A/C.6/128.

65 United Nations Document A/271.

66 United Nations Document A/67.

67 United Nations Document A/271, as cited.

68 United Nations Document A/67/Add.1.