CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, PEREMPTORY NORMS … CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, PEREMPTORY NORMS OF GENERAL INTERNATIONAL LAW (JUS COGENS)

AND OTHER TOPICS AT THE 71 ST SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION Pavel Šturma*

1. Introduction and the organization of the 71 st session of the ILC The International Law Commission is the United Nations body which has for its object the promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification. This contribution aims at presenting the results of its work completed in 2019, as well as the on- going work and some new topics. As usual, the session of the Commission was held in Geneva and split into two parts. Its first part took place from 29 April until 7 June 2019 and was followed by a month break. Then the Commission resumed its session in Geneva on 8 July 2019, and the second part lasted until 9 August 2019. At its first meeting on 29 April 2019, the Commission elected the Chairman of the ILC and other officers of the Bureau of the sixty-sixth session. 1 On some occasions, they also met at the Enlarged Bureau, including, in particular, the Special Rapporteurs and chairmen of Working Groups. The Commission also set up a Planning Group under the chairmanship of the First Vice-Chair. The ILC also established a Drafting Committee which met this year for all topics where some draft articles or conclusions were sent to it: (a) Peremptory norms of general international law ( jus cogens ); (b) Crimes against humanity; (c) Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts; (d) Succession of States in respect of State responsibility; (e) Immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction; and (f ) General principles of law. During the first part of the session, the Commission also established the Planning Group which in turn decided to constitute the Working Group on the Long-term programme of work, under the chairmanship of Mr. Mahmoud Hmoud, and the Working Group on methods of work, under the chairmanship of Mr. Hussein Hassouna. The first Working Group also discussed, on the basis of the submitted working papers, new proposals of possible subjects for the Long-term programme. The Working Group decided, during the second part of its session, to recommend including two new topics, namely “Reparation to individuals for gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law” and “Prevention and repression of piracy and armed robbery * Prof. JUDr. Pavel Šturma, DrSc. , is Head of the Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, senior research fellow at the Institute of Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, President of the Czech Society of International Law and member and chairperson of the UN International Law Commission. He is a co-author of the textbook Public International Law and author of many publications on codification of international law, international criminal law, human rights and international investment law. 1 Chairperson: Mr. Pavel Šturma (Czech Republic), First Vice-Chairperson: Mr. Mahmoud D. Hmoud (Jordan), Second Vice-Chairperson: Ms. Nilüfer Oral (Turkey), Chair of the Drafting Committee: Mr. Claudio Grossman Guiloff (Chile), Rapporteur: Mr. Charles Chernor Jalloh (Sierra Leone).

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