64th Session of the General Assembly

Agenda Item 81

Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its sixty-first session

 

Mr. Chairman,

We welcome the progress made in the topic “Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters” during this year’s session of the Commission and highly appreciate the work of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Eduardo Valencia-Ospina.

Concerning the 5 draft articles provisionally adopted by the Drafting Committee, we agree with the choice of the rights-based approach supported by the needs-based approach. We have only one comment to the article on the “duty to cooperate”. The primary responsibility of States should be underlined. The duty to cooperate with the United Nations should be differentiated and emphasized from duties owed to other organizations. The differentiation between the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is also needed, as the former operates mostly on the basis of international humanitarian law which seems to be excluded under draft Article 4.

We fully support that the Commission excluded the concept “responsibility to protect” from the scope of the topic according to the narrow definition of the concept in the 2009 report of the Secretary-General. We look forward to the subsequent reports of the Special Rapporteur with new draft articles on other relevant principles and access of humanitarian aid in the event of disasters.

With respect to the future form of the draft articles, we are of the view that they should - as non-binding guidelines - supplement the current documents on humanitarian assistance (e.g. the relevant UNGA resolutions or the Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies).

Mr. Chairman,

As regards the topic „Shared Natural Resources“, the Czech Republic would like to express its gratitude for the work of the previous Special Rapporteur, Mr. Chusei Yamada, and wishes a successful continuation of the work in this topic to the new Special Rapporteur, Mr. Shinya Murase. The Czech Republic has responded, among a few States, to the questionnaire concerning transboundary oil and gas resources and encourages other States to provide information and comments on the matter so that the Commission could decide at its next session whether it should continue its consideration of the subject.

Similarly to other States, the Czech Republic sees no need to develop universal rules in this area, however, the Commission could elaborate elements which would be useful for States when negotiating bilateral agreements on sharing transboundary oil and gas reserves and it could also summarize State practice. This State practice could include various agreements and arrangements between the States concerned and between their national oil and gas companies. However, the Commission should avoid addressing the questions of maritime delimitation. These questions can be better dealt with according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by the States concerned and/or by competent judicial bodies, including the International Court of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.