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United Nations - Office of Legal Affairs

Strategy for an Era of Application
of International Law - Action Plan

Adopted by the Senior Management Group and Approved by the Secretary-General, June 2000

Download Action Plan in PDF


2. Assisting States to Prepare Necessary Implementing Legislation
 
Background

In many national legal systems, at least certain of the rules of international law that are binding upon the State automatically become part of national law without the necessity for any further action on the part of State institutions. In most systems, though, further institutional action is needed in order to create new national laws which will ensure that the State's international obligations are implemented.
 
Issue

Many States have very limited resources or expertise at their disposal for the purpose of preparing legislation to implement their international obligations. Situations may consequently arise in which State's international obligations are not properly implemented, or are even not implemented at all, with the result that individuals and corporations are not accorded the rights and benefits for which international law provides.(3)
 
Present Practice

To address this problem, a number of Secretariat units, Programmes, Funds and Agencies provide assistance to Governments in drafting or reviewing national laws to implement their international obligations. These measures include:

The organization of seminars or briefing sessions for Government officials on the implementation of specific multilateral treaties.
 Examples:

The International Trade Law Branch(ITLB) of OLA runs seminars and briefing sessions on UNCITRAL conventions for government officials and for legislators.

An NGO, with the assistance of OLA,recently organized an informal briefing on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the ICC for delegations attending the ICC Preparatory Commission.
 

The provision of technical assistance to States, at their request, in particular, by providing them with experts who either undertake the drafting of their national laws for them or give their Government officials advice and assistance in that task.
 Examples:

The International Trade Law Branch(ITLB) of OLA provides services by technical consultants to particular States that wish to implement specific uniform commercial laws or conventions,in particular by reviewing draft legislation which has been prepared by national authorities or by providing those authorities with assistance in the actual preparation of their drafts.

UNDP organizes the provision of technical assistance to States in the drafting of national laws regulating judicial administration, legal procedure and access to justice.

UNHCR provides technical assistance to States in preparing legislation to implement the 1951 Geneva Convention and its 1967 Protocol. OHCHR and UNICEF also provide technical assistance of this type within the particular areas of their mandates.

Action

The Secretariat, Programmes, Funds and Agencies should take steps towards providing such assistance on a more systematic and widespread basis; (4)

In furtherance of this objective, the Secretariat should take stock of the experience of those units that are already involved in providing Governments with assistance of this type with a view to identifying those approaches which have proved most efficacious and cost-effective ("lessons learned");

The Secretariat units, Programmes, Funds and Agencies which provide technical assistance in the preparation of legislation to implement international obligations should better coordinate their activities with a view to maximizing their effectiveness and avoiding duplication.(5)In particular:
 

If several agencies or organizations are providing assistance in respect of the same subject matter, they should endeavour to coordinate their programmes.
 Example:

The programmes run by UNDP, OHCHR,ODCCP, UNV, UNOPS, UNICEF, ILO and UNCTAD on access to justice and good governance may benefit if more coordination could be achieved.
 

Units which run programmes of assistance in fields to which the programmes of other units are relevant should share their expertise. 
Example:

The International Trade Law Branch(ITLB) of OLA has taken steps to ensure that UNCITRAL texts are taken into account in programmes of technical legal assistance that are run by development agencies.
 

The Secretariat,Programmes, Funds and Agencies, with the assistance of relevant treaty bodies, should ensure that government officers are provided with training on a more sustained and general basis in the drafting of domestic legislation to implement treaty commitments ("capacity building"). This might be done through the direct provision of such training or by developing national capacity to provide such training ("training trainers"); (6)

The International Law homepage on the UN Website should include a new sub-site entitled "Technical Assistance to States", clearly identifying all UN offices that provide assistance to Governments in the preparation of legislation to implement international obligations; (7)

Wherever feasible, websites and sub-sites maintained by Secretariat units, Funds,Programmes and Agencies should include, amongst the information on any treaties that are featured on the site, the texts of relevant implementing legislation adopted by States and reported to the Secretariat;

The Secretariat,Programmes, Funds and Agencies, should, where they are not themselves in a position to provide technical assistance, explore the possibility of enlisting the assistance of relevant IGOs or NGOs, as appropriate.

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