CYIL 2012

PETR VÁLEK CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ the remaining two requests withdrew the relevant draft resolutions, which was the case of the United Cities and Local Governments (submitted by Turkey 129 ) and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries (submitted by Azerbaijan 130 ). This was done with regard to the GA decision No. 49/426 of December 9, 1994, setting the basic criteria for granting observer status. According to this decision, “the granting of observer status in the General Assembly should in the future be confined to States and to those intergovernmental organizations whose activities cover matters of interest to the Assembly.” In this context, the members of the Sixth Committee discussed whether this decision must be always complied with, or whether it is just a guideline for this Committee. The first position was taken by the Latin American States, while Turkey, Korea and other Asian States argued in favor of the second view. While it is clear that the purpose of this decision was to “filter” the requests for observer status in the GA by certain criteria, the Sixth Committee has already made an exception. This was the case of the International Olympic Committee, 131 clearly a non-governmental organization, which received observer status in 2009, due to the request 132 and diplomatic efforts of Italy. In spite of this exception, the restrictive approach to the application of this GA decision was taken by the Sixth Committee. 6. Concluding Remarks The three items in the agenda of the Sixth Committee that I addressed in detail above, show the diversity of issues that this Committee currently deals with. With regard to the first one, the consideration of the ILC draft articles should remain the core of the Sixth Committee’s work in the future. In this sense, the Sixth Committee will continue to fulfill its mandate pursuant to the UN Charter related to progressive development and codification of international law. As I tried to demonstrate with the example of the Articles on the Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States, sometimes the UN Members may actually benefit from dropping such articles from the agenda of the Sixth Committee. This does not Observer status for the International Conference of Asian Political Parties in the GA, Letter dated 10 August 2011 from the Permanent Representatives of Cambodia, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Viet Nam to the UN addressed to the SG, UN Doc. A/66/198. 129 Request for the inclusion of a supplementary item in the agenda of the sixty-sixth session, Observer status for the United Cities and Local Governments in the GA, Letter dated 19 July 2011 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the UN addressed to the SG, UN Doc. A/66/192. 130 Request for the inclusion of a supplementary item in the agenda of the sixty-sixth session, Observer status for the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking Countries in the GA, Letter dated 12 August 2011 from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN addressed to the SG, UN Doc. A/66/196. 131 Resolution of the GA No. 64/3 of October 19, 2009, UN Doc. A/RES/64/3. 132 Request for the inclusion of a supplementary item in the agenda of the sixty-third session, Observer status for the International Olympic Committee in the GA, Letter dated 26 November 2008 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN addressed to the SG, UN Doc. A/63/235.

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