UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA

(from International Marine Organization)

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982. It lays down a
comprehensive regime of law and order in the world's oceans and seas establishing rules
governing all uses of the oceans and their resources. It embodies in one instrument
traditional rules for the uses of the oceans and at the same time introduces new legal
concepts and regimes and addresses new concerns. The Convention also provides the
framework for further development of specific areas of the law of the sea.

The Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) of the Office of Legal Affairs
of the United Nations serves as the secretariat of the Convention on the Law of the Sea and
provides information, advice and assistance to States with a view to providing a better
understanding of the Convention and the related Agreements, their wider acceptance,
uniform and consistent application and effective implementation. The Division monitors all
developments relating to the Convention, the law of the sea and ocean affairs and reports
annually to the General Assembly of the United Nations on those developments. It also
assists the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the
Law of the Sea in reviewing such developments.

CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATION

(Paragraph 1, Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nation)

Purposes of the United Nations are:

1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective
collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for
the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring
about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and inter-
national law, adjustment or settlement of inter-national disputes or situations which
might lead to a breach of the peace;

STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

(Chapter XIV of the Charter of the United Nation)

CHAPTER XIV
THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Article 92

The International Court of Justice shall be the principal judicial organ of the United
Nations. It shall function in accordance with the annexed Statute, which is based
upon the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and forms an
integral part of the present Charter.

Article 93

1. All Members of the United Nations are facto parties to the Statute of the
International Court of Justice.

2. A state which is not a Member of the United Nations may become a party to the
Statute of the International Court of Justice on conditions to be determined in each
case by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.
 Article 94

1. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the
International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party.

2. If any party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a
judgment rendered by the Court, the other party may have recourse to the Security
Council, which may, if it deems necessary, make recommendations or decide upon
measures to be taken to give effect to the judgment.

Article 95

Nothing in the present Charter shall prevent Members of the United Nations from
entrusting the solution of their differences to other tribunals by virtue of agreements
already in existence or which may be concluded in the future.

Article 96

1. The General Assembly or the Security Council may request the International Court
of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.

2. Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any
time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions
of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.

VIENNA CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF TREATIES

(Encyclopedia Britannica)

An international agreement governing treaties between states that was drafted by the
International Law Commission of the United Nations and adopted on May 23, 1969, and
that entered into force on January 27, 1980.

A convention governing international treaties was one of the first efforts undertaken by the
International Law Commission, and James Brierly was assigned as special rapporteur in
1949 to address the subject. After his resignation in 1952, each of his successors began
the work anew. Sir Humphrey Waldock, appointed in 1961, produced six reports from
which the commission was able to create a draft to submit to the UN General Assembly in
1966 with a recommendation that a conference be convened to conclude a convention based
on the draft. The conference held its first meeting in 1968, and the convention was adopted
at its second session the following year.

The convention applies only to written treaties between states. The first part of the
document defines the terms and scope of the agreement. The second part lays out the rules
for the conclusion and adoption of treaties, including the consent of parties to be bound by
treaties and the formulation of reservations—that is, declining to be bound by one or more
particular provisions of a treaty while accepting the rest. The third part deals with the
application and interpretation of treaties, and the fourth part discusses means of modifying
or amending treaties. These parts essentially codify existing customary law. The most
important part of the convention, Part V, delineates grounds and rules for invalidating,
terminating, or suspending treaties and includes a provision granting the International
Court of Justice jurisdiction in the event of disputes arising from the application of those
rules. The final parts discuss the effects on treaties of changes of government within a state,
alterations in consular relations between states, and the outbreak of hostilities between
states as well as the rules for depositaries, registration, and ratification.

It was necessary for 35 member states of the United Nations to ratify the treaty before it
could go into effect. Although it took until 1979 to secure those ratifications, more than half
of the UN members had agreed to the convention by early 2018. Even those members that
had not ratified the document, such as the United States, generally followed the
prescriptions of the agreement.

THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

(Equality and Human Rights Commission [equalityhumanrights.com])

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is an international human
rights treaty adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1966. It is one of the two treaties that
give legal force to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the other being the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR).

ICCPR commits the states signed up to it to protect and respect the civil and political rights
of individuals. The UK ratified ICCPR in 1976.

ICCPR rights are fundamental to enabling people to enjoy a broad range of human rights,
including those relating to:

 freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment
 freedom from slavery and forced labour
 arrest, detention and imprisonment
 movement into, within and out of a state
 treatment by the judicial process
 privacy, home and family life
 freedom of thought, religion and expression
 peaceful assembly
 freedom of association, including through trade unions
 marriage and the rights of children
 political participation, and
 equality and non-discrimination.

THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

(Crop Life International [croplife.org])

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an international treaty with three main
goals:

1. The conservation of biodiversity

2. The sustainable use of the components of biodiversity
3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic
resources.

It entered into force on 29 December 1993 and to date has 196 Parties (168 signatures).
The CBD is governed by the Conference of the Parties (COP), which meets every two years;
the fourteenth meeting (COP14) will take place towards the end of 2018 in Egypt.

There are also two international agreements which fall under the CBD:

1. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which

entered into force on 11 September 2003.
2. Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing
of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity,
which entered into force on 12 October 2014.
THE NAGOYA PROTOCOL ON ACCESS TO GENETIC RESOURCES AND
THE FAIR AND EQUITABLE SHARING OF BENEFITS ARISING FROM
THEIR UTILIZATION TO THE CONVENSION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
(Crop Life International [croplife.org])
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of
Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity is a
supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It provides a transparent
legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the
fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
The Nagoya Protocol on ABS was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and entered
into force on 12 October 2014, 90 days after the deposit of the fiftieth instrument of
ratification. Its objective is the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the
utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use
of biodiversity.

UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION

(Article I of the United Nations Convention against Corruption)

Article 1 - Statement of purpose

The purposes of this Convention are:

(a) To promote and strengthen measures to prevent and combat corruption more
efficiently and effectively;

(b) To promote, facilitate and support international cooperation and technical

assistance in the prevention of and fight against corruption, including in asset recovery;

(c) To promote integrity, accountability and proper management of public affairs and
public property.