Visit of the Secretary-General to the International Law Commission, United Nations Office at Geneva, 18 July 2019

Visit of the Secretary-General to the International Law Commission, United Nations Office at Geneva, 18 July 2019

H. E. Prof. Dr. Kennedy Gastorn, the Secretary-General of AALCO, addressed the Seventy-First Session of the International Law Commission (ILC) on 18 July 2019 and summarized the viewpoints of Member States of AALCO on the topics on the agenda of the ILC as expressed in the Fifty-Seventh Annual Session of AALCO held in Tokyo, Japan in October 2018. In his statement, the Secretary-General cherished AALCO’s longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with the ILC and thanked the Commission for the yearly invitation to take part in its session. 

He also expressed his personal view on the geographical representation of the Rapporteurs of the ILC topics in the light of the composition of the Commission. He pointed out quoting figures that there had been only a few number of rapporteurs from Asia and Africa since the establishment of the Commission, a trend that had to be revisited. Further, he conveyed to the Commission that the Fifty-Seventh Annual Session of AALCO held in Tokyo in 2018 mandated the Organization to recommend new topics for the consideration of the Commission for their inclusion in its long-term programme of work. Finally, he invited the members of the Commission to the upcoming Annual Session of the Organization scheduled to be held in October 2019 in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania. 

The Commission thanked AALCO for the continued interest in its work and urged the Organization to encourage more participation of Afro-Asian countries in the work of the ILC, for instance by timely submitting written responses to the questions from ILC Special Rapporteurs. The Commission also urged AALCO to revive its practice of drafting ‘soft laws’, for instance on concluded works of the ILC. 

Mr. Kiran Mohan V, Legal Officer, also attended the ILC session as a participant of the Fifty-Fifth Session of the International Law Seminar. 

Statement of Secretary General