Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Work of the International Law Commission

Abstract

By mid-March 2020, it became evident that the pandemic would preclude the Commission from meeting in Geneva during the first half of its planned session. Since the regional groups of the Commission informally had agreed upon which five members of those groups would serve on the Commission's bureau for the upcoming seventy-second session, that “incoming bureau” coordinated with the “outgoing bureau” of the seventy-first session (which continues to serve until the seventy-second session) on a recommendation from the Commission to the General Assembly. [...]the Commission recommended that the seventy-second session be postponed in its entirety to 2021 and that the terms of office of the current members, which normally would end in 2021, be extended so as to conclude in 2022. [...]whenever a member speaks at a Commission session, it is translated simultaneously into five other languages, a step that may be technically possible through video-conferencing, but nevertheless presents new logistical and cost issues.