UIHJ- 15th Anniversary with Ecosoc
This year, the UIHJ is celebrating its 15th anniversary as a consultative non-governmental member (NGO) of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. Consultative status provides NGOs with access to not only ECOSOC, but also to its many subsidiary bodies, to the various human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, as well as special events organized by the President of the General Assembly.
One of the subjects on this year's UN agenda was “The general promotion of justice and international law”. This issue is of upmost importance to the UIHJ and its member's countries... Under the leadership of its President, Leo Netten, the UIHJ has begun a project of an: “International Week of the judicial professions”. The representatives of the UIHJ met with several people during their mission to New York in order to learn the procedures and process which must take place in order to pass a future resolution that has to be voted by the 193 countries member's states. This future resolution will honor not only our profession of judicial officer, but those other professions that deal each day with the duties of ensuring the judicial rights of world citizens - judges, attorneys, notaries and court clerks. A position paper was prepared by the board of the UIHJ and is to be posted on the web site of the UIHJ for those interested in reading more about this project.
Facts on the Statute of the UIHJ within the United-Nations
The ECOSOC was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal body to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the fourteen UN specialized agencies, functional commissions and five regional commissions. The Council also receives reports from eleven UN funds and programs. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system. It is responsible for:
- promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress;
- identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems;
- facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and
- encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It has the power to make or initiate studies and reports on these issues. It also has the power to assist the preparations and organization of major international conferences in the economic and social and related fields and to facilitate a coordinated follow-up to these conferences. With its broad mandate the Council's purview extends to over 70 per cent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system.
The General Assembly is the main body of the United Nations. The Assembly is empowered to make only non-binding recommendations to States on international issues. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, are heard before the Assembly. It also plays a significant role in the process of standard-setting and the codification of international law. The Assembly meets in regular sessions from September to December each year.
Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, brings to his post 37 years of service both in Government and on the global stage. Ban Ki-moon has served as Secretary General of the United Nations for the past 5 years.
Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser was elected President of the sixty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 22 June 2011. Mr. Al-Nasser has contributed to advancing the agenda of peace and security, sustainable development and cooperation over a career spanning nearly four decades. For the past 13 years, from 1998 to 2011, Mr. Al-Nasser served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations. Mr. Al-Nasser told a later news conference that his main theme would be mediation. “This is a very timely issue,” he said. “The world is going through difficult times. Diplomacy is needed today. It is very important.”
“The sands are shifting. We have before us a unique opportunity to shape, change and ensure that our next chapter will be safer for the most vulnerable, more prosperous for those in need and kinder to planet Earth,” said Mr. Al-Nasser as he addressed the Member States present during the 66th opening session of the United Nations General Assembly.
President Al-Nasser stated that future generations would hold Member States accountable for how they respond to world events, and that Member States today had an opportunity to work together to produce results. He asked the Member States to prove that they had learned from the lessons of the past, and that when faced with those who chose force and brutality, would “choose peace, human rights and democracy”.
The Role of Mediation in the Settlement of Disputes
Mr. Al-Nasser set out the four main areas of the Assembly's agenda for the session, which included United Nations reform and revitalization; strengthening disaster resistance and response; sustainable development; and, the role of mediation in the settlement of disputes, which he had chosen as the theme of this year's general debate.
With increasing momentum worldwide and within the United Nations to seek mediation and other peaceful dispute-settlement tools, he intended to “actively pursue” the issue during the sixty-sixth session. “It is my view that the General Assembly should, through its revitalization, become more engaged and empowered on issues of mediation, so it can fulfill its role as the world's pre-eminent peacemaker at this major juncture in international relations,” he said.
Mediation used for peaceful dispute settlement, is also an important aspect of law to UIHJ and its members. However, within its specific field with regards to the purely monetary disputes, this area of law and the resolutions of "amicable" debt recovery is one of the areas the UIHJ will specifically target for expansion of the duties of the enforcement officers throughout the world. Specifically, some countries do not practice amicable recovery. This approach could help people facing the present and worst financial crisis since the great depression. This crisis was also specifically pointed out by Mr. Al-Nasser due to the fact that this global economic crisis threatens global efforts to promote growth and prosperity he has mentioned.
Finally, a somber highlight of the opening ceremony was the Assembly's commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of pioneering United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Following a moment of silence, Assembly President Al-Nasser sited Mr. Hammarskjöld's remarkable work in shaping the methods of work of the United Nations and his strong belief in preventive diplomacy and in the need to assist newly independent countries.
Mr. Ban pledged to carry on his work, guided by his wisdom. From the time of the Suez operation, Mr. Hammarskjöld was the architect of peacekeeping as it was known today. Mr. Hammarskjöld had believed that the Organization existed, not for the world's major Powers, but for smaller, weaker countries. Mr. Hammarskjöld's convictions rang true today, Mr. Ban said in closing, “Dag Hammarskjöld never stopped climbing. « He never gave up. His ideals were uncompromising, his accomplishments were magnificent and his legacy towers over us today ».
Focus
