The President of the Constitutional Court Ineta Ziemele will give a presentation on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the International Law Commission of the United Nations
From 5 to 6 July, the President of the Constitutional Court, Professor of the Riga Graduate School of Law Ineta Ziemele will participate at the solemn meeting of the International Law Commission (hereinafter – the Commission) of the United Nations (hereinafter – the UN), which will be held during the annual session of the Commission in Geneva, Switzerland.
During this meeting, Ineta Ziemele will give a presentation at one of the panel discussions on the function of the Commission in the development of the international law (“The function of the Commission: How much identifying existing law, how much proposing new law?”). Ineta Ziemele in her presentation will present her insight into the challenges of the Commission in its future work, in view of the impact of globalisation processes in the evolution of the international law.
To honour the 70th anniversary of the Commission, the meeting will be attended by the highest UN officials, specialists of international law, scholars and experts of law. The solemn meeting will be opened by the Chair of the Commission Eduardo Valencia Ospina and other invited guests, whereas the keynote speech will be given by the President of the UN International Court of Justice Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf.
During the discussion the participants will debate both the contribution made by the Commission thus far to the codification and development of the international law, as well as outline the directions of the Commission’s future activities.
During the first panel the issues related to the Commission’s role thus far and its impact upon the practice of the UN Member States will be discussed, the presentations of the second panel will focus on the Commission’s methods of work and communication. The third panel, during which Ineta Ziemele will give her presentation, will discuss adapting the work of the Commission to the needs of the contemporary international community. The fourth panel will be dedicated to the changing nature of the international law and the trends of future development, and the participants of the fifth panel will focus on the future challenges for the Commission.
All presentations given at the meeting will be published in one edition.
The agenda of the meeting is available here.
Video recordings of the panel discussions will be made available on the homepage of the UN.
On the UN and the International Law Commission
The UN was established in 1945 to ensure international peace and security, facilitate peaceful relationships between the states, implement international cooperation and serve as the centre for aligning the actions by nations. Currently the UN has 193 Member States. Latvia has been a Member State of the UN since 17 September 1991.
The Commission is an auxiliary structure of the UN General Assembly, established in 1947. The Commission works to promote gradual development and codification of the international law, its task is to prepare codification projects of the international law in various sub-branches.
The Commission meets once per year. It consists of 34 highly qualified experts of international law, who are elected for the term of five years by the UN General Assembly and who act as individuals, not as the representatives of their governments.
During the last 70 years, the Commission has given indispensable contribution to the codification of the international law, from the development of the maritime legal regime up to laying the foundations for the International Criminal Court. Its work, inter alia, has created the basis for the international conventions in the fields of contract law, diplomatic and consular law, and the Commission also has been the author of the essential articles on the State responsibility.
More detailed information is available on the homepage of the Commission: www.un.org/law/ilc.
