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
7. Encouraging Acceptance of Dispute-Resolution Mechanisms
Background
Under general international law, there is no duty upon States to refer disputes
to any particular method of settlement,in particular, to settlement by a third
party or body. Some treaties provide for a compulsory third-party dispute settlement
mechanism. However, in many cases, States parties are only bound to accept
resolution of their disputes through that method if, in addition to ratifying
the treaty, they have specifically accepted the obligation to resolve their
disputes in that way. In other cases, they must ratify a separate protocol
in order to be so bound.
Issue
Treaty provisions of this type are often not accepted and such protocols not
ratified. If disputes arise concerning the application and implementation of
the treaty, States are consequently able to avoid impartial third-party evaluation
of their conduct in terms of the applicable rules of international law. Those
rules may then fail to be implemented.
Action
The Secretariat should initiate a sustained campaign to widen the circle
of States accepting the competence of compulsory third-party dispute-settlement
mechanisms. To this end:
A limited number of these mechanisms
should be identified which should be the subject of a campaign (these mechanisms
should include the International Fact-Finding Commission provided for in Article
90 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions);
The campaign should be conducted along
the lines outlined with regard to participation in multilateral treaties (see
Section 1 of this Plan).
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