STATEMENT OF MR NATHANIEL KHNG, COUNSELLOR (LEGAL), PERMANENT MISSION OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS, TO INTRODUCE ON BEHALF OF THE BUREAU OF THE SIXTH COMMITTEE THE DRAFT RESOLUTION UNDER AGENDA ITEM 90 ON STRENGTHENING AND PROMOTING THE INTERNATIONAL TREATY FRAMEWORK, 19 NOVEMBER 2020

1 Thank you, Mr Chair.  I have the honour to introduce, on behalf of the Bureau of the Sixth Committee, the draft resolution contained in document A/C.6/75/L.15, entitled “Strengthening and promoting the international treaty framework”.   My colleague Maitê De Souza Schmitz from Brazil and I had the honour of coordinating the informal consultations on this draft resolution.

2 Mr Chair, this draft resolution is based on General Assembly resolution 73/210 adopted on 20 December 2018.  It contains 12 preambular paragraphs and 14 operative paragraphs.  Key paragraphs from the resolution from the 73rd session that have been retained include the first operative paragraph, which recalls Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, reaffirms the importance of the registration and publication of treaties as well as of their accessibility, and stresses that the regulations to give effect to Article 102 of the Charter should be useful and relevant to Member States and should be kept updated.

3 Apart from necessary technical updates, the key substantive changes between the text of this draft and that of the resolution adopted at the 73rd session are as follows. 

(a) First, in its second preambular paragraph, the draft resolution recalls General Assembly resolutions that reaffirm that multilingualism is a core value of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to make efforts to ensure that multilingualism is not undermined by the measures taken in response to the liquidity situation and the COVID-19 pandemic.

(b) Second, in its fifth operative paragraph, the draft resolution encourages the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs to continue to organize workshops on treaty law and practice as regularly as possible, including through the use of information and communications technology when necessary due to extraordinary circumstances, and invites States as well as interested international organizations and institutions to continue to support this activity.

(c) Third, in its eighth operative paragraph, the draft resolution notes that most submissions of treaties to the Treaty Section for registration are in electronic format, and in this connection encourages the Secretary-General to develop, in consultation with and on the basis of feedback from Member States and within existing resources, an online treaty registration system to facilitate submissions of treaties for registration, as an additional option to the existing ways of submission in electronic or hard-copy format.

4 Finally, while the draft resolution notes that some Member States continue to consider that outstanding issues remain where the regulations to give effect to Article 102 of the Charter may need further consideration or possible updating, it defers consideration of proposals on the regulations to the 76th session of the Assembly having regard to the limitations on meetings within the United Nations premises at the current session in order to contain the spread of COVID-19.  In this connection, the draft resolution also takes note of proposals made during the current session on the regulations, and encourages Member States to submit to the Secretariat any additional proposals before 30 June 2021 and requests the Secretariat to transmit all the proposals it has received to Member States.

5 Mr Chair, my colleague Maitê De Souza Schmitz from Brazil and I would like to sincerely thank delegations for their constructive engagement in the negotiations on the draft resolution.  We would also like to thank the Acting Chief of the Treaty Section, Mr David Nanopoulos, and his team, as well as the Secretariat of the Sixth Committee, in particular, Mr Carlos Fuentes, for their support during the negotiations.

6 This concludes my introduction of draft resolution A/C.6/75/L.15.  My co-coordinator and I recommend that the Sixth Committee adopt this draft resolution without a vote.  Thank you.

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