80 Years of UN Multilateral Treaty Making: Press Conference

Annual Treaty Event

• 🗓️ The annual Treaty Event takes place next week, from Tuesday, September 23rd to Friday, September 26th, during the UN General Assembly's high-level week.
• 🤝 Initiated 25 years ago, its objective is to provide states with an opportunity to join multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General.
• 🌍 The event aims to foster universal participation in multilateral agreements, crucial for achieving common global objectives.

UN Treaty Making Successes

• 📜 The UN has served as a unique forum for states to negotiate and adopt over 600 multilateral treaties in its 80-year history.
• 🏛️ The UN acts as a depository for these treaties, safeguarding their texts and managing state participation.
• 📈 The Treaty Section ensures legal correctness and circulates depository notifications to all parties immediately upon a state's ratification.

Recent Developments in Treaties

• 💻 The UN Convention against Cybercrime, adopted last December, is the first global treaty on the matter and will be open for signature in Hanoi.
• 🌊 The BBNG agreement for ocean protection saw 19 more states ratify and 20 sign it during a recent event in Nice, bringing it closer to entry into force.
• 🚢 The Beijing Convention on the judicial sale of ships met conditions for entry into force and will become active next February.

Treaty Ratification and Enforcement

• ❓ When countries ratify treaties but violate them, the depository's role is to ensure legal correctness and circulate information, not to enforce compliance.
• ⚖️ Treaties create rights and obligations for countries, and the time to adjust and adopt legislation varies depending on the treaty's complexity.
• 🌐 The treaties.un.org website is an authentic source of information on multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, offering an automated subscription service for updates.