United Nations General Assembly Research Articles

A NEWCOMER TO MARITIME LAW: THE BEIJING CONVENTION ON THE INTERNATIONAL EFFECTS OF JUDICIAL SALES OF SHIPS

Abstract On 7 December 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a treaty known as the Beijing Convention governing the recognition abroad of the international effects of judicial sales of ships. This article explores the rationale for a specific Convention on this issue, and its interaction with other relevant international conventions. It then analyses the recognition approach adopted by the Convention and evaluates its potential strengths and weaknesses. While some provisions might need further consideration, the overall conclusion is that the Beijing Convention has the potential to strengthen the legal certainty of the purchaser's title obtained via this sale mechanism and thus help debt recovery. Although common law jurisdictions might find it at odds with some of their features, the expected benefits from ratifying it seem to outweigh these issues and are already prompting a steady number of signatures, including those of China, the European Union and Singapore.

Drivers of differentiation between EU Member‐states in the UN General Assembly

Drivers of differentiation between EU Member‐states in the UN General Assembly

The global implementation of UNDRIP: a thematic review

ABSTRACT Following almost 25 years of work, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. UNDRIP has been widely recognised as an authoritative statement of human rights norms concerning Indigenous peoples around the world. However, meaningful implementation of UNDRIP has been slow. To better understand the pace and challenges facing implementation, we identify and analyze four key recurring themes that emerge from the growing literature on this topic. This includes (1) Indigenous self-determination versus state autonomy as a driver of potential conflict; (2) the meaning of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the context of UNDRIP; (3) the nexus between land, culture, and self-determination; and (4) Western/Global North influence over non-Western/Global South state implementation of UNDRIP. We examine several specific examples from across the globe to reveal the continuities and discontinuities across these four themes. The article concludes by offering ideas on how the limits of the present study and wider literature on UNDRIP might be rectified. That is, by incorporating a greater number of Indigenous perspectives on UNDRIP and adding more studies of governance and implementation challenges encountered in countries located in the Global South.

Topical Issues of International Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Safety

INTRODUCTION. Environmental problems, today, in terms of the degree of harm to the environment and all living things on the Planet, it is not possible to compare with other problems. In January 1997, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in resolution 15/157, called on States to take decisive measures in matters of carrying out activities in all directions exclusively in accordance with the norms of international law, to implement international legal principles and take measures to join multilateral agreements in order to ensure the development of international law in general and all its branches. Most developed countries have set a course to ensure comprehensive security, the implementation of which is possible only if they take a clear course to ensure the protection of the population through a set of socio-economic, political and environ[1]mental measures. Ensuring environmental safety is an essential part of the problem of the security of the existence of the state as a whole, the resolution of which at the present stage of society's development is becoming as much a priority as ensuring military and economic security. Environmental safety is a set of conditions, processes and phenomena that ensure an ecological balance in the natural environment, the state of protection of all components of the natural environment, a category aimed at maximizing the protection of all natural objects and natural ecosystems from danger (man–made, biological, radiation, chemical, etc.). Environ[1]mental security is opposed to the uncontrolled economic growth that humanity is facing, as well as the complex problem of contradictions between the growing needs of society and the inability of the bio[1]sphere to provide them. In this regard, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, speaking at the Conference on the Problems of the Oceans, rightly stressed the inability of human society to improve what it cannot appreciate. Today, there is no need to prove that environmental problems in terms of the degree of destructive impact and catastrophic consequences for all living things and the planet as a whole cannot be compared with problems of a different nature. The rapid increase in population, the development of new fertile territories, economic growth and, in this regard, the increasingly intensive use of Land spaces and resources have led to serious and sometimes irreversible consequences that negatively affect its condition. Humanity is faced with the difficult problem of contradictions between its growing needs and the inability of the biosphere to provide them.MATERIALS AND METHODS. This study uses the works of both Russian and foreign experts in the field of international environmental and international maritime law. The research used general scientific methods of cognition – analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction. Special legal methods were also used in the work – formal legal, technical legal, the method of legal analogy, as well as the comparative legal method.THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY. The analysis of the current practice on environmental safety issues allowed us to draw logical conclusions that, taking into account the need to resolve international and national environmental problems, modern society needs to form a new system of environmental relations, where international relations will be transformed towards giving the highest priority to the problem of environ[1]mental safety, including the primary requirements concerning the rational use of all natural objects: land, waters, forests, etc. in order to ensure the optimal possibility of realizing the ecological function of nature.DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. The preservation of the natural environment is a complex task that requires not only legislative regulation at both the international and domestic levels, but also the formation of a correct public consciousness about its importance for the existence of all life on our Planet, the unity of ecosystems and the value of all components of the natural environment, which, among other things, will allow the world community to unite in ensuring cooperation on global environmental issues, creating a system of universal environmental safety.

International agencies and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda: Evidence from the United Nations in Angola

ABSTRACT The New Urban Agenda (NUA) was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 2016 and embodies the contemporary ideal of sustainable development in an urban world. While the question who can and who should bring the agenda to life has been addressed by research for various actors and governance arrangements, international agencies have mostly been confined to their function as progenitors and advocates of norms. In this paper, I take a closer look at their operational work in implementing the NUA and analyze the main policies pursued by two UN agencies in Angola, UN-Habitat and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). I argue that rather than being led by national or local actors, NUA implementation in Angola was driven by international agencies. Highlighting the potential and pitfalls of their efforts, I further show how scarce funding, discontinuities, and a strong reliance on direct collaboration circumscribed their impact on the ground.

DISCRIMINATION POLICIES THAT LEAD TO FORCED MIGRATION: THE QUESTION OF THE BULGARIAN TURKS WITHIN UNITED NATIONS (1988-1989)

On August 21, 1989, Turkey’s decision to close the borders with Bulgaria it was interpreted by the authorities in Ankara as an attempt to force Sofia through dialogue both governments to reach an immigration agreement. Turkey considering itself as the kin state several times tried to sensibilize and prove that ethnic Turks living in Bulgaria experienced continued repression and forced assimilation while Bulgaria perceived those attempts as long-term policy of Turkey in interfering on internal issues of Bulgaria. The confrontations between Turkey and Bulgaria increased with the decision of Turkey to address this problem within United Nations. In the recent academic literature, most of the studies are focused on the internal factors and practices related to the assimilation campaign, for the period 1985-1989. The purpose of this paper, it is to contextualize the arguments used in favor and against internationalization of the question of the Bulgarian Turks through multilateral diplomacy as an instrument used by state authorities in Turkey and Bulgaria. The term Bulgarian Turks it is used in the sense of ethnicity referring to the ethnic Turks living in Bulgaria and having the status of the minority group. In this paper will be analyzed the content of the documents delivered by the Permanent Representatives of Turkey and Bulgaria in UN to the UN Secretary General and UN General Assembly, and the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur appointed in accordance with resolution 1986/20. The paper it is guided by two research questions: What kind of engagement Turkey chose in raising the question of the Bulgarian Turks into UN level? What actions took Bulgaria within UN in negating the accusations for an assimilation campaign?

The coming microbial crisis: Our antibiotic bubble is about to burst

This month, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly will convene its second High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance , urging UN member states to take decisive action against this growing threat. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a list of the drug-resistant bacterial and fungal infections that pose the greatest concern to public health. Yet, despite increasing warnings from infectious disease experts, the public remains largely unaware of the true scale of the problem. In a world where antibiotics still protect us from bacterial infections, we are shielded from experiencing antimicrobial resistance as an immediate threat to our daily lives.

Are We Opening Pandora’s Box? Clones, Human Spare Parts and International Law

Abstract This article aims to verify whether human cloning is prohibited in international law and, if so, to what extent. In order to answer this question, it seeks to demonstrate that the complexity of the phenomenon and its concrete implications require a series of appropriate distinctions to be made. The article starts with an overview of the different positions adopted by the member states during the debate in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, which led to the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Cloning and continues with a focus on the European legal human cloning framework to verify whether it is more precise than the general international one. It demonstrates that reproductive cloning is prohibited both at the global level and in Europe, while therapeutic cloning so far remains within the limits of lawfulness.

The war in Ukraine in light of international law

AbstractThe aggression and the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine by the Russian Federation have, since their outset, implied not only the violation of fundamental customary and treaty norms of international law, but, at the same time also undermine the foundations of the contemporary international legal order. The ‘special military operation’ violates several universal international conventions in the elaboration of which the predecessor state of contemporary Russia, the Soviet Union had a definitive role; furthermore, it expressly breaches Russian undertakings concerning respect for the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. Since in this case the aggressor state is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, thus, instead of the Council, the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly proceeds on the basis of the Uniting for Peace resolution and makes recommendations for collective measures to the Member States. The present study discusses the most important international norms breached with the aggression and during the war, the resolutions of the emergency special sessions of the UN General Assembly, the post-war situation, as well as the issue of remedy and reparation due to Ukraine.

Non-aligned common front: strategic imaginaries of the new international economic order (NIEO)

ABSTRACT Fifty years after the Sixth Special Session, the Progressive International (PI) has declared a strategy of "renovating the NIEO". However, key questions remain about the decisions that created and led the original campaign. The NIEO's draft declarations were brought to the UN General Assembly by the leaders of 95 states, caucused as the G77. Their solidarity was necessarily pluralistic, drawing on Marxist and Liberal visions of what Adom Getachew called “post-imperial worldmaking”. This raises the question of how this global "common front" was possible, and what the PI might do differently this time. As a partial explanation, I compare two of the project's strategic imaginaries, showing that they were successfully synthesised in practice. As this legacy inspires the PI's focus on the possibilities of sovereign debt crises, the NIEO continues to play an important historical role. It alludes to possible options, or alternative futures, of world order and global development.

The Relevance of a Globally Recognised Rights-based Approach to Environmental Protection

A rights-based approach is an international framework centered on the promotion and protection of human rights consistent with international human rights standards. Since the United Nations General Assembly in Stockholm in 1972 first linked human rights and environmental protection, there has been a growing tendency to include rights-based guarantees in environmental protection topics. After more than a decade of judicial practice in environmental protection, rights-based environmental litigation has become more and more evident. On this basis, a human rights-based approach has been put forward to address the issue in a way that is shared between “government” and “businesses”. The human rights-based approach is of great significance to environmental protection and sustainable environmental development, and the relationship between the two is also of value for research.

Behind Bars and Beyond: Navigating the Terrain of Gender Justice in Indian Prison

The research aims to compile data on the challenges faced by women in prison and the available legal remedies for their plight. To guarantee women prisoners' protection and provide a non-custodial degree of punishment, the Bangkok Rules was established in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly. Overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and cleanliness, poor nutrition, a lack of education, violence, and the hazards of pregnancy and child care are merely some of the physical and mental difficulties that women confront in prisons in India. Women are safeguarded against exploitation and granted access to essentials by a multitude of laws, regulations, and standards. In reaction to human rights violations against such convicts, the Indian judiciary has vigorously interpreted Articles 19, 21, 22, 37, and 39 A of the Indian constitution. What options does a woman have when "caretakers" are turned into abusers? Their predicament is exacerbated by the prevailing state of prisons, gender bias, abuse while incarcerated, harsh treatment of children, inadequacy of fundamental human rights, and restricted availability of prison resources. The research envisages the pressing need for improvements by addressing women's rights, challenges, and variables in prison.

Imran Khan’s Speech as Prime Minister of Pakistan at UNGA 2021: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Linguistic Strategies under the Lens of Fairclough’s 3D Model

The study aims to unfold the linguistic strategies employed by the former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan in his speech delivered at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in the year 2021. However, the primary objective has been to explore the functions these linguistics strategies performed to convey the target meanings to the global audience. Fairclough 3D model has been employed as the framework of this study. Hence, the population of the study included the multiple speeches delivered by the former prime minister Imran Khan to UNGA throughout his tenure while the researcher selected a particular sample of only one speech given in 2021 through purposive sampling. The findings revealed the constant use of multiple linguistic strategies by the former prime minister to portray the positive image of Pakistan in front of the whole world by highlighting the importance of global peace.

International legal regulation of the conclusion of agreements on the transfer of technologies and the protection of intellectual property rights during the international transfer of technologies

The article is devoted to the study of international legal regulation of the conclusion of agreements on the transfer of technologies and the protection of intellectual property rights during the international transfer of technologies. The focus is on the activities of international state organizations of the UN system (there is studied the source base of the Body of the UN General Assembly – UNCTAD, the UN Economic Commission for Europe – UNECE, the UN Commission on International Trade Rights – UNCITRAL, special attention is paid to the activities in the development of various aspects of technology transfer of the World IntellectualProperty Organization – WIPO; the main aspects of technology transfer of the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization – WTO are being defined, as well as the ones of the documents of other international organizations in this field: the World Bank, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers – FIDIC, the European Development Fund. In particular, the author examines main principles and characteristic features of the key documents of these international organizations, as well as approaches to the regulation of certain aspects of technology transfer in international law, that have changed over time.

The Feminisation of Poverty in European Union Countries—Myth or Reality?

The feminisation of poverty is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon related to gender inequality in various aspects of life. Women are disproportionately affected by the gender pay gap, unequal intra-household resource distribution, unpaid domestic work, caregiving responsibilities, single motherhood, employment or educational barriers, violence, gender discrimination, and period poverty. Combating poverty and inequality are among the main goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015, and their great importance is further highlighted in the preamble of the resolution outlining the plan to transform our world by 2030. This study uses SDG indicators from the Eurostat database to assess the feminisation of poverty in the EU-27 member states in 2020 based on selected diagnostic characteristics mainly related to SDG 1 and SDG 5; they are also related to other goals due to the cross-cutting nature of the topic. The characteristics were transformed to reflect gender gaps and afterwards unitised with a veto threshold indicating gender balance. These were then used to calculate a synthetic taxonomic measure, allowing for linear ordering and classification of countries based on the feminisation of poverty levels. The study confirmed significant feminisation of poverty in the EU-27, with a few aspects showing masculinisation. High feminisation of poverty was observed in both emerging and advanced economies.

Ambivalent Purview of Kinship Care: Insights from Stakeholders

The realm of alternative care for children covers a variety of care systems, which include residential care, small group homes, mother and child shelters, transit homes, adoption, foster care and kinship care. The United Nations General Assembly’s 2019 resolution on children’s rights emphasises the significance of family-based environments for children, particularly those without parental care, and underlines their right to grow up in a family setting. In light of this resolution, kinship care emerges as a crucial family-based care avenue for children lacking parental care. In India, kinship care stands as the predominant form of care for children lacking sufficient parental support and is the most common form of care in almost all regions, religions, castes and ethnic groups due to the tradition of the joint family system and close ties among relatives. While this care option is the most common form of out-of-home care, it is also the least systematically recorded, monitored or supported structure. The study, through the lens of kinship carers, ward and village-level child protection committees and community workers, focuses on the important aspects of support, motivation, love, responsibility and challenges that underlie providing care for children without parental care. This qualitative study employs ethnographic interview techniques to understand the most authentic experiences of kinship carers. Families were initially identified based on secondary data captured from the assessment and intervention planning done using the Thrive Scale™ tool as part of the case management process. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six families from two different communities (one urban community in the state of Maharashtra and one rural community located in the state of Gujarat in India) to assess the existing support structures available for kinship carers and their families, identifying gaps and measures being taken to address them to ensure meaningful well-being of children and kinship families. The study discusses various challenges of kinship families, from financial struggles to familial disconnection, lack of housing infrastructure or access to healthcare, family issues like alcoholism or child labour, lack of education or livelihood and social isolation. The study further recommends increased attention and resources directed towards supporting kinship carers, acknowledging their invaluable role in providing love, support and stability to children without parental care, and also emphasises the importance of recognising and formalising kinship care within a broader framework of alternative care for children. Miracle Foundation India is committed towards ensuring that every child has an opportunity to grow up in a family, to become a healthy, happy, income-producing person and to experience a true sense of belonging. The paramount significance of kinship care is recognised by Miracle India in its sphere of both the prevention of child separation from family and reintegration work. After a thorough assessment of these families on the five key domains of well-being—physical and mental health, education, family and social relationships, household economy and living conditions—and continuous monitoring and follow-up, Miracle India provided a comprehensive support service to these families, strengthened them and ensured sustained access to support services, ultimately promoting child welfare. During this study, the focus remained on prioritising the implementation of supportive policies and resources for kinship caregivers to ensure that every child in vulnerable circumstances thrives within the warmth and stability of a loving and caring family.

UPAYA GURU DALAM MENANAMKAN NILAI KEAGAMAAN PADA ANAK BERKEBUTUHAN KHUSUS DI SLB MA’ARIF NU LAMONGAN

Initially the term special needs emerged from special education given to students who experienced physical or psychological disabilities. There are 4 basic principles of children's rights contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989 and ratified by Indonesia in 1990, namely Non-Discrimination, the Right to live, the Right to develop and the Right to to have an opinion. Learning for children with special needs requires an individualistic approach. Based on the problems above, this research has 3 research focuses: 1) What are the religiousvalues instilled in children with special needs at SLB Ma'arif NU Lamongan? 2) How do Class Teachers Efforts to Instill Religious Values in Children with Special Needs at SLB Ma'arif NU Lamongan? 3) What are the Supporting and Inhibiting Factors in theImplementation of Instilling Religious Values in Children with Special Needs at SLB Ma'arif NU Lamongan? In this research, researchers took a qualitative research method approach. In this research, the researcher took a qualitative descriptive type of research. Data collection was carried out using interviews, observation and documentation.

Problematic issues of qualification of cases of destruction or damage to forests and other objects of flora committed by the russian military in Ukraine

The article examines the peculiarities of qualifying cases of destruction or damage to forests and other flora committed by the russian military in Ukraine as war crimes, taking into account the norms of national and international law. Based on the analysis of the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1976, and the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) of 8 June 1977, it was concluded that such facts are subject to qualification under Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the CC) only if it is proved that they were committed in the context of and in connection with hostilities, and caused widespread, long-term and serious damage to the environment. It is stated that these features are evaluative, and therefore there is a need to initiate at the international level the development and regulatory consolidation of clear criteria for minimal damage to the environment, which will give grounds to qualify the infliction of such damage as a war crime under international humanitarian law. It is proved that if there is no connection with the conduct of hostilities, then mass destruction of flora is subject to qualification as ecocide under Article 441 of the Criminal Code, and if there is no mass destruction of such objects, then these acts may be qualified under Article 245 or Article 246 of the Criminal Code, but also only in cases where there is no connection with the conduct of hostilities. And if an individual or a group of russian military destroy or damage a plant life object, but this does not cause widespread, long-term and serious damage, but there is a contextual connection with the conduct of hostilities, such acts should also be qualified, depending on the subject and/or method of impact on plant life objects, under Article 245 of the CC or Article 246 of the CC.

Universal institutional mechanism for ensuring the right to development

The article describes the institutional mechanism for ensuring the right to development at the international universal level. The functions and mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Working Group on the Right to Development, the High-level Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, etc. are described. It is noted that the right to development is the only human right specifically mentioned in resolution 48/141 of the UN General Assembly, by which it established the position of High Commissioner and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is highlighted the functions of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in ensuring the right to development. It is described the mandate of the Working Group on the Right to Development, which includes: monitoring and analysis of progress made in the promotion and implementation of the right to development at the national and international levels, making recommendations and further analysis of obstacles to its full implementation; review of reports and any other information submitted by States, UN agencies, other relevant international organisations and non-governmental organisations on the relationship between their activities and the right to development, etc. It is noted that the High-level Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development was established within the framework of the Working Group on the Right to Development to assist it in fulfilling its mandate. It is stated that the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development contributes to the realisation of the right to development by developing practical guidance to implement the right and to integrate it within development policies and programmes at local, national, regional and international levels. The functions and mandate of the Special Rapporteur are highlighted. It is described the activities of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, which provides the Human Rights Council with thematic expertise on the right to development in searching for, identifying and sharing best practices with Member States and promotes the implementation of the right to development worldwide.

Export potential of millets from India: Current status and short-term forecast

This study examined the status and trends of millet exports from India and forecasts future exports based on monthly export data and the ARIMA-TDNN model. Millets, also known as nutri cereals, have been gaining attention for their potential to achieve food and nutritional security sustainably. The Indian government launched several initiatives to promote the cultivation and consumption of millets following the 2018 declaration of the National Year of Millets. Subsequently, the UN General Assembly declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. India is a significant producer of millets, accounting for 17 per cent of the global cultivation area and 18 per cent of the world’s millet production. The average yield of millets in India is 1.40 t/ha, exceeding the global average. However, India accounts for less than 2 per cent of the world's millet exports. Keywords: Bajra, export, forecasting, neural network, nutri cereals, ragi, sorghum. JEL Codes: C53, Q17, Q18.