CYIL vol. 13 (2022)

CYIL 13 ȍ2022Ȏ ACTIVITIES OF THE SIXTH COMMITTEE OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY … aggression against Ukraine took place, the Committee was considering agenda items entitled “Peaceful settlement of disputes” and “Maintenance of international peace and security”. Due to heavy politicization of discussions, including while considering the draft report of the Committee, when Russia and some other delegations blocked amendments to the report proposed by the EU and some like-minded delegations 55 , the Charter Committee was not able to adopt any report from its session, which is an unprecedented outcome. Three elements, currently influencing the work of the Sixth Committee – effort for achieving progress on ILC products, effort for keeping consensus-based decision making and politicization of topics – cannot be reconciled, they are mutually exclusive. This leads to a paralysis of the Committee and, consequently, to paralysis of codification and progressive development of international law, at least within the United Nations 56 . In this atmosphere of politicization, it is even more important to create coalitions of like-minded delegations and coordinate negotiation strategies. The Czech Republic benefited from cooperation with other EU Member States and from the support of the Delegation of the EU to the UN. A cooperation with Austria and Slovakia (so-called Austerlitz/Slavkov format, or S3), was also very successful. This cooperation may, in some form, continue during the 77 th session of the General Assembly and following.

55 These amendments were only aimed at capturing the views of delegations more accurately, noting that some States criticized Russia for its aggression, which is purely factual statement. 56 States can continue to codify and progressively develop international law outside the United Nations (see, e.g., so-called MLA initiative negotiations). Also, international courts continue to contribute to development of international law through their jurisprudence.

401