United Nations Treaty Collection

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United Nations Treaty Series
UNTC - United Nations Treaty Collection
 
Organization type UN Secretariat
Abbreviation UNTC, UNVS
management Antonio Guterres
status active
Founded December 14, 1946
Headquarters New York , USA United States
United StatesUnited States 
Upper organization United NationsU.N. United Nations
https://treaties.un.org

The United Nations Treaty Series, UNVS (short: UN Treaty Series , English United Nations Treaty Collection - UNTC, French Nations Unies Collection des Traités ) contains the since 24 October 1945 when the UN Secretary General filed by international treaties of the United Nations certified in the form of Copies (Certified True Copies, CTCs), also information about the status of the contracts, i. i.e. whether they are in force, which countries have signed them, and any reservations, declarations and objections of the contracting parties.

The collection also contains the treaties of the League of Nations and the bilateral and multilateral treaties concluded between the member states of the UN, provided that these have been deposited with the UN.

The UNVS is provided for in Article 102 of the UN Charter and the Secretary General of the UN is designated as the depositary of the treaties contained therein. On December 14, 1946, the UNVS was created by the UN General Assembly with UN resolution A / RES / 97 (I). This resolution also stipulated the publication of the contracts contained therein. For this purpose an online portal was created on which public access to this data is granted.

The Council of Europe has its own collection of European Treaties (SEV; English Council of Europe Treaty Series, CETS ), which has the same purpose.

Content of the contract collection

The term “contract” is a collective term for a wide variety of binding agreements under international law (Art. 2 WVK).

The certified copies and the current status of the contracts are stored separately. Both are, however, divided into the same 29 thematic chapters, where the corresponding contracts are listed.

The main components of the contracts deposited with the UN ( Depositary of Treaties ) are:

  • The table of contents (English Titles of Treaties ) of the multilateral treaties deposited with the UN Secretariat (English Multilateral Treaties deposited with the Secretary-General , MTDSG) in the 6 official languages ​​of the UN. This is the actual table of contents of the UNVS , in which the contracts are listed in the corresponding chapters with their contract numbers .
  • the certified copies of deposited in the Secretariat contracts (Engl. Certified True Copies (CTCs) of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General ), including the title of each contract and the chapter in the UNVS where it is stored. The certified contract is drawn up in the languages ​​specified in the contract. The last page is the confirmation of authenticity by the custodian from the UN Secretariat (Art. 77 Para. 1 lit b VVK).
  • the contract series (engl. United Nations Treaty Series, UNTS), which is the contract register of the UN, in which are listed after its entry in chronological order by the Secretariat of all deposited with that contracts.
  • the current status of the contracts (. English Status of Treaties ), which include:
    • the title of the contract
    • Indication of when the contract became legally binding ( entry into force ), (Art. 24 WVK)
    • the registration date (Art. 80 VVK)
    • the status of the contract , d. i.e. how many countries signed the treaty
    • the reference to the text of the contract , d. i.e., the certified copy and the contract series (UNTS)
    • the list of all member states of the UN with details of the signing and ratification of the treaty
    • the statements (engl. Declarations ) and reservations (engl. Reservations ), which made the member states in the contract.

A declaration (Art. 31 para. 2 lit VVK) contains how the contracting state interprets or understands a certain article. A reservation is the rejection of a certain article (Art. 19 ff VVK). The transitions are smooth because such reservations objections of other States (English. Objections) can trigger, if they do not accept the reservation. You can assert that with this reservation the contract or part of it does not apply. So made z. B. Pakistan on the Convention against Torture (FoK) the reservation that Articles 4, 6, 12, 13 and 16 FoK are not applicable to the Sharia , whereupon several states did not accept this. They argued that Pakistan's reservation was in breach of the Treaty (Art. 27 WVK) and therefore the agreement between them and Pakistan would not apply.

Deposited bilateral and multilateral agreements

International contracts that were not drawn up by the UN can also be deposited with the UN, e.g. B .:

  • European Convention on the statute of limitations on crimes against humanity and war crimes
  • Treaty between Germany and Poland on the addition of the European extradition agreement
  • Treaty between Liechtenstein and Switzerland on the connection of Liechtenstein into the Swiss customs area

Aids of the UNVS

  • The regulations of the UNVS (English Regulations ), with the official name: Registration and Publication of Treaties and International Agreements: Regulations to give effect to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations
  • The Reference Manual (Engl. Treaty Handbook ); it explains the most important terms of the UNVS such as: contracts, agreements, conventions, deeds, protocols, declarations, declarations of intent, modus vivendi and exchange of notes
  • A glossary in which the terms used in the UNVS are defined.

Legal basis

The basis of the UNVS is the UN Charter , which all member countries ratified when they joined the UN . Art. 102 of the UN Charter stipulates that the UN Secretariat is the depositary, custodian of the international treaties between the member countries and that the treaties are made generally accessible by the UN according to the principle of public access (Art. 80 VVK).

Art. 102 UN Charter
(1) All treaties and other international agreements that a member of the United Nations concludes after the entry into force of this Charter will be registered with the Secretariat as soon as possible and published by it .
(2) If such treaties or international agreements are not registered in accordance with paragraph 1, their contracting parties may not invoke them before an organ of the United Nations .

The object of the depository is in Part VII of WVK Depositary, notifications, corrections and registration regulated, which in turn, in Chapter 23 of the UNVS under legal contracts (engl. Law of Treaties ) is stored.

The contracts also specify the languages ​​in which the contract is binding (e.g. Art. 33 WVK) and where it is stored (e.g. Art. 16 WVK).

background

The League of Nations was already the depositary of treaties from 1920 to 1944 - the League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS). Since the UN is the successor to the League of Nations, these treaties were also taken over and filed in the UNVS under “League of Nations Treatys”.

The UDHR is not part of the UNVS

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is - contrary to popular opinion - no international treaty, but a UN resolution in which the UN, sub-paragraph in Article 3, paragraph 1 and Article 55.. c of the UN Charter mentioned human rights and fundamental freedoms i. S. defined a memorandum of understanding , analogous to UN resolution A / RES / 97 (I), in which UN-internally the UNVS was regulated. Since the UDHR is not an international treaty, it is not included in the UNVS.

However, since the UDHR defines the human rights and fundamental freedoms mentioned in the UN Charter, it is the basis of the UN's binding international treaties on human rights, such as B. the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) , in whose preamble reference is made to the UDHR as the basis of the Convention.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b UN-Res A / RES / 97 (I) Registration and Publication of Treaties and International Agreements Reglement of the UNVS of December 14, 1946, (pdf, English), accessed on February 1, 2019
  2. ^ A b c Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, WVK - German translation in the Systematic Collection of Federal Law of Switzerland
  3. ↑ UNTC Overview Overview of the UNVS, accessed on February 1, 2019
  4. ^ European Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitation to Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes multilateraler, europ. Contract (CETS 082) stored in the UNVS, accessed on February 1, 2019
  5. ↑ Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland to supplement the European Convention on Extradition and to facilitate its application in the UNVS deposited bilateral treaty between Germany and Poland, accessed on February 1, 2019
  6. ↑ Treaty between Principality of Liechtenstein and the Switzerland concerning the union of the latter with the Swiss Customs Territory , a bilateral treaty between Liechtenstein and Switzerland stored in the UNVS, accessed on February 1, 2019
  7. ↑ Law of Treaties Certified copy of the WVK, in: UNVS The law of contracts