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African student refugees. The Assembly also called for interested states to prepare an international convention protecting the rights of migrant workers.

In a four-part resolution, "Alternative Approaches and Ways and Means within the U.N. System for Improving the Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms," the Assembly approved creating and/or strengthening national institutions or regional arrangements for human rights, but postponed to its 1980 session a discussion on establishing the post of a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and elevating the present U.N. secretariat Division on Human Rights to a Center for Human Rights.

In other resolutions, the Assembly called for Members to find a better way to deal with mass and flagrant human rights violations, to support a Trust Fund for Chile, to incorporate and apply the right of habeas corpus in order to promote fundamental political and civil rights, and to establish national and regional organizations to promote universal human rights.

DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

The 34th General Assembly adopted three new international conventions: The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, the Convention Against Taking Hostages, and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. It also adopted a Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.

The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies was adopted by the General Assembly on December 6, 1979, without a vote. It prohibits the use of force, hostile acts, or the establishment of military bases or the testing of weapons on the Moon and other celestial bodies in the solar system and provides that exploration and use of the Moon shall be the province of all mankind and that it shall not be subject to national appropriation by any claim of sovereignty or use of occupation. It also calls on States Parties to be guided by the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance in all their activities, to promote freedom of scientific investigation on the Moon to keep the U.N. Secretary General and the international scientific community informed of their activities there, to the extent feasible and practicable, to prevent environmental disruptions and pollution of the Moon, and to adopt all practicable measures to safeguard the life and health of persons on the Moon. States Parties to the Agreement may land and establish manned and unmanned stations on the Moon over which they have jurisdiction and for which they bear international responsibility.

The adoption of the agreement represents 8 years of deliberations by the members of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. In June 1971, the Soviet Union proposed that the Committee prepare a treaty on the Moon. In March 1972, the U.S. proposed a wholesale revision of the agreement to expand its provisions to include scientific cooperation, to cover all celestial bodies, not just the Moon, and to incorporate guidelines for the possible future exploitation of possible mineral resources on celestial bodies. The agreement which the General Assembly adopted heavily reflects the earlier

(1972) U.S. proposals. The text of the agreement appears in appendix IV G of this report.

The 34th session also adopted a Convention Against Taking Hostages on December 17, 1979. This convention represents the culmination of the work of the Committee on the Convention Against Taking Hostages, a child of the General Assembly's Legal (Sixth) Committee. It will come into force when 22 States ratify it. The convention specifically prohibits states from taking hostages and make hostage-taking an international crime. The text of the convention appears in appendix IV, G.

Since we are always concerned about what appears to be the proliferation of U.N. committees, it should be of interest that when the Assembly adopted this convention, the Committee on the Convention Against Taking Hostages went out of business. In addition, the General Assembly approved the recommendation of the legal committee to terminate the ad hoc Committee on Terrorism established in 1973 to develop measures to combat international terrorism. Since the political atmosphere is not conducive to its constructive work, the ad hoc committee has gotten nowhere in the last few years, the Assembly's action is highly appropriate. Meanwhile, the U.N. Secretary General is to prepare a report for the 1981 General Assembly recommending ways to promote international measures to combat terrorism.

The third convention adopted by the 34th General Assembly is the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Proposed by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in 1974, the preparation of this convention was then endorsed by the U.N. IWY Conference in Mexico City and by the 1975 U.N. General Assembly. Its purpose is to set forth a general convention that incorporates provisions of existing international conventions prohibiting discrimination against women. Thus it prohibits discrimination against women in political and government life, in education, employment, and health; it also prohibits certain ancient customs as well as discrimination against women because of their nationality or their spouse's. Notably state parties to the convention will constitute a Committee on Women's Rights similar to those committees established under such other U.N. human rights conventions, as the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights. The text of the convention appears in appendix IV, G.

The General Assembly also adopted a code of conduct for law enforcement officials. Although not a convention which would require U.N. member states to ratify it before it came into force, the code represents an internationally agreed upon set of guiding principles and minimal standards to be observed by law enforcement officers in all U.N. member states. Discussed under UNGA item on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the code calls on law enforcement officers to inter alia, respect and protect human dignity and uphold the human rights of all persons, to use force only when strictly necessary, to not inflict, instigate, or tolerate any act of torture, to insure full protection of the health of persons, to oppose and combat any act of corruption and to respect the law and oppose any violation of it.

Although the Soviet bloc view of the code was that it should be observed to the extent it was made part of domestic law, the Western Europeans and the United States considered it to be instead a set of ethics. They compromised by agreeing to provide an interpretative commentary following each article in the text of the code. The text of the code appears in appendix IV, G.

REFORM AND RESTRUCTURING

The issues of U.N. reform and restructuring have been around for several years. Two committees were set up in the early 1970's to look into these matters: The Special Committee on Charter Review, to examine proposals for strengthening international peace and security including proposed amendments to U.N. Charter provisions on the Security Council and the General Assembly; and the Ad Hoc Committee on Restructuring the U.N.'s Economic and Social Sectors to determine ways to make the U.N. more able to deal effectively with problems of international economic cooperation and more responsible to NIEO and the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. In addition, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council under their respective rules of procedure may and indeed have taken measures to rationalize their work. The United States supports the reform and restrucuring of U.N. organs through internal adjustments within those organs. It does not, however, favor a Charter review conference, believing such a conference would unnecessarily open up a Pandora's box of issues.

In its 1979 report to the Sixth (Legal) Committee on Charter Review outlined some 51 proposals. One of these was especially attractive to the Third World: a study of the use of the veto. Third World states generally feel that the permanent members of the Council have abused the veto in the past, and a study of it as proposed by Libya would justify their case for depriving the Big Five of this power. Western and Eastern European members felt, however, that the language of the Libyan resolution prejudiced the study of the matter "beyond redemption" since it would also alter the mandate of the Special Committee, so they threatened to withdraw in protest from the Special Committee. In this regard, the U.N. Legal Counsel said the Libyan draft was so prejudically formulated that the Secretariat could not and would not conduct the study requested of it. The U.S. State Department and the U.S. mission were understandably adament over this effort to attack the veto right. Even a large number of Third World countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin American distanced themselves from the Libyan proposal, which they regarded as ill considered and too extreme and abstained on the vote on the proposal.

In the General Assembly, before Libya's resolution was brought up, the Finns introduced a resolution urging U.N. members not to vote for Libya's proposal. The upshot was that the Assembly endorsed the Finnish proposal and Libya lost.

On a related Security Council reform, India proposed a resolution on behalf of the group of 77 to expand the Council from 15 to 19 members to make room for more Africans and Asians. However, the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviets worked jointly and

successfully behind the scenes to persuade India not to press for a vote. As a result, the question was debated and then dropped.

The report of the ad hoc Committee on Restructuring contained various conclusions and recommendations which were discussed in the Second Committee on Economic and Financial Matters. However, the Assembly, in adopting several resolutions on the subject, called for postponing a discussion on restructuring expansion of ECOSOC's membership, termination of its subsidiary bodies and the possibility of examining some agenda items on a biennial basis-to the 35th Session of the General Assembly in 1980.

With regard to rationalizing the work of the U.N. General Assembly, the Secretary-General made a series of proposals in his June 1979 report: On the UNGA agenda, the organization of committee work, maximizing available time, documentation, subsidiary organs, planning meetings and budgetary and financial questions. Subsequently, the 34th General Assembly with U.S. support decided to initiate most of these recommendations.

In sum, though U.N. reform and restructuring continue to be of interest to many U.N. members, including the United States, at least two major initiatives-the expansion of the Security Council and the study of the veto-were dropped, and another set of proposals was postponed. However, one positive outcome was the adoption of interval measures to rationalize the Assembly's work.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND BUDGETARY ISSUES

The 34th Assembly dealt with a number of administrative and budgetary issues that concern the Congress: The financial emergency of the United Nations; the scale of assessments; the U.N. program budget for the 1980-82 biennium and personnel policies, including salaries, and program evaluation.

FINANCIAL EMERGENCY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The Secretariat reported on this subject 32 that the U.N.'s $201.4 million deficit had accumulated from: (1) the nonpayment by certain U.N. members, mainly the Eastern Europeans, of their assessment for peacekeeping operations (UNEF, UNDOF, ONUC); (2) payments of contributions in nonconvertible currencies; (3) withholding by members of all or part of their regular assessed contributions; (4) delay in timing of payments; and, (5) inflation and currency fluctuation.

The Committee on the U.N.'s Financial Emergency, however, was unable to meet during the 34th General Assembly session, since its chairman had not been replaced. The Soviets and Eastern Europeans prefer to drop the item of the financial emergency and terminate the Committee since, in their view, the Committee has "nothing to discuss." The United States, however, prefers to keep the item of the financial emergency "on the agenda and maintain the Committee."

At its 60th meeting on November 27, 1979, the Fifth Committee decided to postpone a discussion of the U.N.'s financial emergency to

32 A/C.5/34/44.

the General Assembly's 1980 regular session. Meanwhile, the United States and the Soviets are carrying on bilateral consultations in an effort to reach an agreement on solutions to this issue.

SCALE OF ASSESSMENTS

The United Nations has two major sources of financing: assessed contributions of members finance its regular program budget (secretariat staff salaries and program expenses) and members' voluntary contributions to finance such technical assistance programs as the U.N. development program, UNICEF, UNRWA, and UNEP.

With respect to assessed contributions, U.N. members are required to make contributions according to a scale of assessment based on the principle of a country's ability to pay, usually national income or GNP, as determined by an 18-member intergovernmental Committee on Contributions.

The U.S. assessed contribution since 1972 has been 25 percent of the U.N.'s regular budget; the Soviets, 11.6 percent; the United Kingdom, 4.5 percent; France, 5.8 percent; and China, 5.5 percent.

In 1979, the Chinese Government, however, announced that their latest national income statistics would require them to reduce their assessed contribution. This raised several issues: which countries would absorb the balance; whether the 25-percent ceiling should be increased; whether a minimum should be reestablished. After considerable debate, the General Assembly adopted a resolution in which it was decided that the ceiling of 25 percent should not be reopened and the United States should continue to pay 25 percent. (According to GNP, the United States should be paying 29 percent of the U.N.'s regular budget.) Several other states-Australia, Canada, France, FRG, Italy, Japan-are to increase their contributions; the Chinese quota was fixed at 1.62 percent, and a new floor or minimum of 0.01 percent was decided upon for roughly 90 countries. The new scale of assessments for 1980-82 was adopted: 111-4-12 abstentions. (Iceland, Iran, Iraq, and Syria opposed.) This resolution also called on the Committee on Contributions to study in depth and report to the 1980 General Assembly the ways of increasing the fairness of the scale of

assessment.

U.N. PROGRAM BUDGET FOR THE BIENNIUM 1980-81

A major task of the Fifth Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters during the 34th session was to discuss and make recommendations on the U.N.'s 1980-81 program budget to the General Assembly. The Committee recommended gross appropriation of $1,247,793,200 for the 1980-81 biennium, or about $600 million per year. The latter amount is less than the budget of the Department of Sanitation of the city of New York. The General Assembly approved this appropriation and its allocation for various purposes by a vote of 119 (Group of 77)—9 (U.S.S.R. and Eastern bloc)—9 (U.S., China, and the West).33 In the Fifth Committee's debate on this appropriation, the United States and Israel both voted against appropriations for the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the

33 A. Res. 34/230.

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