CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

MAREK ZUKAL ACTIVITIES OF THE SIXTH COMMITTEE OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY DURING ITS 78 TH SESSION Marek Zukal * During the 78 th session of the UN General Assembly, its Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) held two sessions once again: the regular autumn session in October and November 2023 and the resumed session in the spring of 2024. The spring resumed session was dedicated to exchange of substantive views on all aspects of the Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity, prepared by the International Law Commission, and on further consideration of the recommendation of the ILC to elaborate a convention on their basis. The autumn part of the session, on the other hand, traditionally dealt with a wide range of issues (e. g. responsibility of international organizations, protection of persons in the event of disasters, report of the International Law Commission, the scope and application of the principle of universal jurisdiction etc.). Having considered all the agenda items allocated to it, the Sixth Committee recommended that the General Assembly adopt 16 resolutions and 12 decisions. It has become an established practice for Legal Advisers of the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations to provide overviews of the work of the Committee in the Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law 1 . This article is a continuation of that practice and attempts to provide a brief summary of the developments in the Committee from a first-hand perspective. Overview of Sixth Committee’s session in 2023 For the 78 th session of the General Assembly, the Bureau of the Sixth Committee was composed of representatives of Thailand (Chair of the Committee), Romania, Italy, Venezuela (Vice-Chairs) and Djibouti (Rapporteur). All resolutions and decisions were adopted by consensus, as has been the tradition of the Sixth Committee for many years now. Some delegations continued to try to abuse the practice of adopting resolutions by consensus in order to promote their interests in a manner inconsistent with good faith negotiations. These * Marek Zukal is the Legal Adviser at the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations in New York. Prior to that, he was a lawyer at the International Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague (Mgr. – 2017, JUDr. – 2018) and the University of Economics and Business in Prague (Ing. – 2018). He is currently studying in a Ph.D. program at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily correspond with the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and do not bind this institution in any way. 1 See for example VÁLEK, Petr. The Activities of the Sixth Committee During the 66 th Session of the UN General Assembly: Business as Usual? In: ŠTURMA, Pavel (ed.). Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law . Prague: Czech Society of International Law, 2012, pp. 293–319. ISSN 1805-0565; ZUKAL, Marek and Jan MAIS. Activities of the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly during its 76 th session. In: ŠTURMA, Pavel (ed.). Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law . Prague: Czech Society of International Law, 2022, pp. 386–401. ISSN 1805-0565; or ZUKAL, Marek and Anna MATOUŠKOVÁ. Activities of the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly during its 77 th session. In: ŠTURMA, Pavel (ed.). Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law . Prague: Czech Society of International Law, 2023, pp. 452–464. ISSN 1805-0565.

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