The International Law Commission of the United Nations held its 44th session from May 4 to July 24, 1992, under the chairmanship of Professor Christian Tomuschat. The Commission considered aspects of state responsibility, the possible establishment of an international criminal court, international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law, and its future plan of work and working methods.

In little over a year, the United Nations has created a new and innovative mechanism to collect, assess and ultimately provide compensation for hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of claims against Iraq for direct losses stemming from the invasion and occupation of Kuwait.

The UN Compensation Commission, an element of the United Nations response to Iraq’s August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, began operations in Geneva in July 1991. In seven formal sessions between July 1991 and September 1992, the Commission’s Governing Council adopted by consensus an innovative structure for collecting and verifying millions of potential claims. A small, but experienced, professional staff was recruited; it is headed by a distinguished Peruvian diplomat and includes legal experts with long experience at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague. The staff is at work in the Villa La Pelouse on the UN grounds in Geneva.

At its Sixty-fifth Conference in Cairo, April 20-26, 1992, the International Law Association approved by consensus the Declaration of Principles of International Law on Compensation to Refugees. Prepared by the International Committee on the Legal Status of Refugees, these principles build upon earlier drafts that were debated at the Sixty-third Conference in Warsaw in 1988, and were approved “in principle” at the Sixty-fourth Conference in Queensland, Australia, in 1990.

At the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly, the Sixth Committee1reviewed the annual reports of the International Law Commission (ILC), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (Charter Committee), and the Committee on Relations with the Host Country. The Sixth Committee also considered proposals for new legal instruments relating to some aspects of sovereign immunity, consular functions, the diplomatic courier and bag, and environmental protection in wartime; a proposal to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on questions relating to extraterritorial jurisdiction; and aspects of such other topics as national liberation movements, humanitarian law, protection of diplomats, and the United Nations Decade of International Law.

On October 26 and 27, 1992, a meeting was held of the heads of the offices responsible for international legal services of the foreign ministries of the member states of the United Nations—the Legal Advisers. The meeting—the third of its kind—was organized at the invitation of the Legal Advisers of Canada, India, Mexico, Poland and Sweden, and with the assistance of the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Under-Secretary-General Carl-August Fleischhauer. Thirty Legal Advisers and sixteen of their deputies attended, together with nearly fifty other interested participants. All five colleagues representing the permanent members of the Security Council were present.