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The United Nations Treaty Collection on the Internet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Palitha T. B. Kohona
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Extract

The Treaty Section of the United Nations is engaged in a major effort to disseminate its vast collection of both bilateral and multilateral treaties by electronic means, including the Internet. As an essential complementary measure, the publication of the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) is to be brought up to date. Both these objectives have presented a range of challenges, not the least of which is securing the requisite resources in the current financial climate. In this paper these challenges (legal, technical and financial) and the approaches that have been adopted to deal with them will be discussed.

Type
Current Developments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 92 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 140 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1998

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References

1 Article 102 of the United Nations Charter provides:

1. Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it.

2. No party to any such treaty or international agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or international agreement before any organ of the United Nations.

2 The history of Article 102 of the United Nations Charter can be traced to Article 18 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. See Manley, O. Hudson, The Registration and Publication of Treaties , 19 AJIL 273 (1925)Google Scholar.

3 Regulations to give effect to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, 859 UNTS at xii, last amended by GA Res. 33/141 (1978), id. at viii [hereinafter Regulations].

4 The League of Nations also adopted a broad interpretation of Article 18 of the Covenant. See Manley, O. Hudson, The Registration of Treaties , 24 AJIL 752 (1930)Google Scholar.

5 Article 1(1) of the Regulations, supra note 3, provides:

Every treaty or international agreement, whatever its form and descriptive name, entered into by one or more Members of the United Nations after 24 October 1945, the date of the coming into force of the Charter, shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat in accordance with these Regulations.

For registrations to be effected, an agreement should already have entered into force.

6 See id., Art. 10.

7 See id., Art. 2.

8 See id., Art. 4.

9 See further GA Res. 482 (V) (Dec. 12, 1950).

10 The backlog stood at approximately 172 volumes in 1975. Almost 15,000 treaties had been registered or filed and recorded by this year.

11 Under Article 12(1) of the Regulations, supra note 3, “[t]he Secretariat shall publish as soon as possible in a single series every treaty or international agreement which is registered or filed and recorded, in the original language or languages, followed by a translation in English and in French.”

12 Some member states have already begun to comply with this suggestion.

13 See, e.g., GA Res. 482 (V), supra note 9, para. 2, which invited member states “to provide the Secretary-General, where feasible, with translations in English or French or both as may be needed for the purposes of such publication.”

14 See UN Doc. A/C.6/32/5/Add.1 (1978).

15 See UN Doc. A/35/423, at 4 (1980); see also UN Doc. A/34/466, at 6 (1979).

16 Given the length of GATT annexes, this approach would result in considerable savings of time and other resources. In addition, GATT annexes are published by its Secretariat. See also Regulations, supra note 3, Art. 12(2) (which applies to bilateral treaties and international agreements).

17 See, e.g., International Court of Justice, Statute, Art. 38.

18 It will be made available in French at the earliest opportunity.

19 The question of hyper-linking can be dealt with technologically.

20 July 24, 1971, 25 UST 1341, 943 UNTS 311.

21 GA Res. 51/158, UN GAOR, 51st Sess., Supp. No. 49, Vol. 1, at 331, 332, UN Doc. A/51/49 (1996).

* Chief, Treaty Section, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations. The views expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of the United Nations, unless otherwise stated.