Treaty Events

Special Treaty Events

The Special Treaty Event can be organized upon request by a Member State either on the sides of the annual Treaty Events taking place in September-October during the General Assembly session or as a stand – alone collective solemn undertaking.

The Special Treaty Event in respect of the multilateral treaties deposited with Secretary-General of the United Nations is an excellent opportunity for the Member States to reaffirm commitment to advancing the international rule of law. Multilateral treaties are the primary source of international law, and the Secretary-General is the largest depositary of multilateral treaties in the world. At present, over 560 multilateral treaties are deposited with the Secretary-General. States participating in a special treaty event are provided with a unique opportunity to be part of a joint ceremony for the signing of a Convention or a number of multilateral treaties, or the deposit of binding instruments in respect of such treaties.

Such special occasions have been organized in the most recent past, and some are listed below:

 April 2005 (Special Treaty Event for Treaties on Organized Crime, Terrorism and Corruption, Bangkok, Thailand and UN Headquarters. Held in Connection with the 11th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice);

 April 2009 (Special Treaty Event for the Promotion of Universal Counter-Terrorism and Crimes Conventions and the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel. Vienna International Centre, Austria 20 April 2009);

 December 2011 (Special Treaty Event for the promotion of universal participation in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees on the occasion of their respective fiftieth and sixtieth anniversary (Palais des Nations, Geneva, 7 December 2011);

 September 2011 (Special Treaty event held on 22 September 2011 to coincide with the High-level Meeting on Nuclear Safety and Security. It was organized by the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, in collaboration with the Office of Legal Affairs of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the objective to promote universal participation in the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (New York, 13 April 2005) and in the IAEA Conventions relating to nuclear safety, security and liability);

 September 2014 (Special Treaty Event to promote the Minamata Convention on Mercury (UN Headquarters, New York, 24 September 2014).  

In order to organize a Special Treaty Event, a number of considerations must be taken into account:

  • Participating delegations expressing interest in the joint ceremony. For the occasion to become a truly collective expression of a joint endeavor to undertake treaty actions, it must engage more than one State.
  • Setting aside a time slot. Assuming there is a high probability of participation of a number of States and depending on the expected number of participants, the Treaty Section would have to establish an appointments schedule for each participant, in particular during the high-paced annual treaty events in September-October.
  • Duration of the joint ceremony. Generally, depending on the expected number of participants, a joint ceremony takes between 30 min (up to 10 delegations) and one hour (up to 20/30 delegations).
  • Venue of the joint ceremony. The treaty actions during the Treaty Event take place in the dedicated space setup for this kind of ceremonies. On some exceptional occasions, the special treaty events ceremonies were held elsewhere which caused logistical problems and, unless there is a very good reason to diverge from the normal practice, it is not recommended.
  • Availability of the Legal Counsel. Indeed, in the course of the Treaty Event, the presence of the Legal Counsel is often required by protocol.
  • Coordination efforts for the joint ceremony. If a joint ceremony is to take place, it will be important that both the Treaty Section and the participating delegations coordinate their efforts. It is important for States to know that they must liaise with this office to obtain confirmation of their participation in the joint ceremony, notably by sending us advance copy of their full powers or instruments and receiving from us formal confirmation that those documents are in good order. Other issues related to the logistics of the special treaty event may be raised by both sides.