Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T09:15:47.959Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The General Review Conference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Jacob Robinson
Get access

Extract

The tenth session of the General Assembly will be faced with the question of convoking a general review conference under Article 109 (3) of the Charter. The conference, if convened, will work under numerous limitations, some of them of a procedural nature, others of a substantive nature. In addition to these objective factors affecting the work of a general conference the attitudes of governments cannot be ignored.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , August 1954, pp. 316 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1954

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1 If one accepts the interpretation given by Mr. Evatt at the San Francisco Conference, the whole of Article 109 can be applied only once (7 UNCIO 211).

2 No provision is made for placing of this item on the agenda of the Security Council, but this may he due to Article 28 (1) of the Chapter under which “The Security Council shall be so organized as to be able to function continuously.”

3 While Article 109 (1) explicitly mentioned the ‘date and place’ of a general conference along with the proposal to hold such a conference, as falling under a certain majority rule, paragraph 3 failed to list the date and place as requiring a simple majority vote.

4 Document A/AC.6/SR.372, par. 28.

5 7 UNCIO 229.

6 7 UNCIO 468.

7 1 UNCIO 616.

8 This possibility was frankly stated in the sixth committee during the eighth session of the General Assembly (Document A/AC.6/SR.374, par. 2).

9 See Review of Procedures developed by the General Assembly: Report of the Subcommittee on International Cooperation in the Political Field to the Interim Committee, July 5, 1950, Document A/AC.18/114 (covers only the first four sessions of the General Assembly).

10 Agreements between the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies, 1952, Document ST/SG/1. Inter-Agency Agreements and Agreements between Specialized Agencies and other Inter-Governmental Organizations, 1953, Document ST/SG/3. See General Assembly resolution 310(IV) on proliferation and overlapping of programs: ECOSOC resolution 324(XI) on relations with and coordination of specialized agencies, and ECOSOC resolution 451(XIV) on the same subject. See also below, p. 323.

11 13 UNCIO 709.

12 6 UNCIO 232.

13 11 UNCIO 616.

14 13 UNCIO 709.

15 11 UNCIO 710.

16 10 UNCIO 271, repeated in 8 UNCIO 81.

17 137 House of Lords 107.

18 The last report submitted on this subject to the General Assembly (Document A/1408) was in 1950 (5th session).

19 Cruel, Jean, La vie du droit et l'impuissance des lois, Paris, Flammarion, 1914, p. 91–92Google Scholar.

20 These modifications are considered by the respective majorities supporting them as interpretations “according to the Charter's spirit rather than its letter, a procedure … perfectly legitimate …” (Document A/C.6/SR.373, par. 39). See also Document A/C.6/SR.371, par. 24; A/C.6/SR.372, pars. 43, 48 contra A/PV.458, par. 41.

21 See Document A/C.6/SR.378, par. 44.

22 On the (Special) Committee of Information transmitted under Article 73 (e) of the Charter see General Assembly resolutions 66(1), 146(II), 119(III), 332(IV), 569(VI), 646(VII); on transmission of information under the same Article see resolutions 9(1).2, 142(11), 142(11), 144(11), 145(11), 218(111), 221(111), 327(IV), 331(IV), 335(IV), 551(VI), and annex, 637 B(VII); on cessation of information see resolutions 222(111), 334(IV), 448(V), 568(VI), 650(VII), 747(VII), 748(VIII). On the right of peoples and nations to self-determination see resolutions 545(VI), 637(VII). See also resolutions 567(VI) and annex, 648(VII) and annex, 742(VIII) and annex, and reports of the Ad Hoc Committee on Factors which would be taken into account in deciding whether a territory is or is not a territory whose people not yet attained a full measure of self-government [Official Records (6th session), Supplement 14, Part 4, (Document A/2178, A/2428)].

23 Recently B. Cheng and L. Green (The Review of the Charter of the United Nations. Memorandum on Technical and Minor Amendments. Paper submitted to the Asian Conference of the International Law Association on 14th September, 1953, 37 pp.) have undertaken such a limited “review” accompanied by draft amendments, of which certain parts indicate the pitfalls of “minor“ amendments. Here are two examples:

Article 27 (3) of the Charter would allegedly be in accordance with the practice of the Security Council regarding the abstention or absence of a permanent member a after the words “… concurring votes of permanent members” the words “present and voting …” were added. This language will certainly prove unacceptable to the USSR which considers absence from the Security Council of a permanent member as lack of a quorum.

The same is true in regard to the suggested alteration of the third sentence of Article 97 (Secretary-General) of the Charter to read:

“He shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council and, notwithstanding anything in his contract to the contrary, a Secretary-General shall hold office until the appointment of his successor”

which “would Prvent any recurrence of the situation which occurred after the expiration of Mr. Lies contract.”

This again is more than a drafting change.

24 Article 16, new paragraphs to become 2. 3 and 4; Article 26 to amend first paragraph and to insert a new paragraph after the existing first paragraph; to replace the existing second paragraph by two new paragraphs to become third and fourth paragraphs; in 1924 (Article 16 to amend the latter part of the first parargaph); in 1925 (to amend the second paragraph of Article 16) and in 1938 (to amend Preamble, Articles 1, 4 and 5 and the Annex to the Covenant) did not enter into force.

However, Article 4 was supplemented by paragraph 2 bis (in force since July 29, 1926); Article 6 was supplemented by paragraph 5 (in force since August 13, 1924); Articles 12, 13, 15, paragraph one, were amended and the amendments have been in force since September 26, 1924. See also Grace Evans Rhoads, Amendments of the Covenant of the League of Nations adopted and proposed, 1935.

25 7 UNCIO 250.

26 The delegate of Ukraine, however, hinted (Document A/C.6/SR.371, par. 29) that “Should it be necessary simply to alter certain individual articles, the alterations could be made within the Charter's present framework.”

27 Document A/PV.444, par. 20.

28 Document A/PV.439, par. 49.

29 Mr. Dulles (Document A/PV.434, par. 45) recalled that the United States Senate adopted a Resolution in this sense. See also Mr. Dulles's statement in the Senate Subcommittee on the Revision of the Charter (Department of State, Bulletm, February 1, 1954, p. 170).

30 Senate Subcommittee on the United Nations Charter pursuant to S. Res. 126, 83d Congress, 1st Session, Providing for a Study of Proposals for a Review of the United Nations Charter, July 28, 1953. See, however, Report of Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Revision of be the United Nations Charter of September 1, 1950. (Senate Report No. 2501, 81st Congress, 2d Session.) See also: Subcommittee on the United Nations Charter. Staff Study No. 1: The Problem of the Veto in the United Nations Security Council. Staff Study No. 2: How the United Nations Charter had developed.

Parts 1, 2 and 3 of Hearing before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations U. S. Senate.

31 Document A/C.6/SR.371, par. 5.

32 Document A/C.6/SR.377, par. 20.