CYIL 2012

PETR VÁLEK CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ their critical comments to the ILC already after the first reading and this expert body takes them into consideration. Apart from the above-stated two sets of articles, the Sixth Committee has dealt recently, in the 65 th session of the GA, with the Articles on Diplomatic Protection, 18 the Articles on Prevention of Transboundary Harm From Hazardous Activities and the Principles on the Allocation of Loss in the Case of Transboundary Harm Arising out of Hazardous Activities. 19 The debate on the final form of these Articles has been inconclusive; therefore, the decision on this question has been postponed to future sessions. In the 66 th session, the GA adopted two resolutions that took note of the Articles on Effects of Armed Conflicts on Treaties 20 and the Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations 21 and decided to include them in the provisional agenda of its 69 th session. During the last session of the GA, the Sixth Committee also considered the Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers 22 and the Articles on the Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States. As I served as a coordinator of the draft resolution on the second item, I will cover in detail the process leading to the adoption of this resolution and explain its provisions. At the beginning of the nineties, when Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and USSR ceased to exist and many new States emerged in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the nationality of natural persons constituted a real problem that these States had to address (in some parts of this region, it remains unsolved even today). Therefore, there was an urgent need for the clarification of the relevant rules of international law. In this historical context, the ILC decided to include in its agenda the topic entitled “State Succession and its Impact on the Nationality of Natural and Legal Persons” in 1993, which was subsequently endorsed by the GA resolution. 23 In 1994, the ILC appointed Mr. Václav Mikulka, the Czech member of this body, to be the Special Rapporteur for the topic. On the basis of his three reports, the ILC completed – in only three years – the first reading of the entire set of draft articles. In 1999, after a thorough review of the comments by Governments, the ILC finished the second reading of the draft articles and submitted them to the GA. 24 When referring the draft articles on other topics to the GA in the past, the ILC used to recommend the conclusion of a convention. In the case of the Draft Articles on Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to Succession of States, however, the ILC suggested to the GA the adoption of these Draft Articles “in the form of a declaration”. 25 The ILC probably made this recommendation taking into account the prevailing lack of will of States to make new treaties on the basis of its draft

18 Resolution of the GA No. 65/27 of December 6, 2010, UN Doc. A/RES/65/27. 19 Resolution of the GA No. 65/28 of December 6, 2010, UN Doc. A/RES/65/28. 20 Resolution of the GA No. 66/99 of December 9, 2011, UN Doc. A/RES/66/99. 21 Resolution of the GA No. 66/100 of December 9, 2011, UN Doc. A/RES/66/100. 22 Resolution of the GA No. 66/104 of December 9, 2011, UN Doc. A/RES/66/104. 23 Resolution of the GA No. 48/31 of December 9, 1993, UN Doc. A/RES/48/31. 24 Report of the ILC, 54th Session, 1999, UN Doc. A/54/10, p. 12-90. 25 Id. , p. 14, para. 44.

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