The international community reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening the multilateral treaty framework by undertaking a total of thirty-two actions at the annual Treaty Event which ended Friday, on the sidelines of the seventy-ninth United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Week.
Two Heads of State, one Head of Government, nineteen ministers and three other high-ranking officials, representing twenty-five States, participated in this year’s four-day Treaty Event.
Under the theme of “Strengthening the Multilateral Treaty Framework”, the Event highlighted, in particular, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to secure a future of prosperity and peace for people and planet, leaving no one behind.
Actions during the Treaty Event centered on the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), with twelve additional signatures, as well as five new ratifications. Since the BBNJ Agreement opened for signature at the 2023 Treaty Event, it has garnered a total of one hundred and four signatures and thirteen ratifications. It will enter into force following the sixtieth ratification, approval, acceptance or accession.
“I am encouraged by the number of additional signatures and ratifications of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement. These actions during the Treaty Event have brought us closer to the entry into force of this instrument which is of crucial importance for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of large areas of the ocean and for addressing the triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss”, said Mr. Stephen Mathias, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel.
This year’s Treaty Event also featured a ceremony on 24 September for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), where three States joined the treaty. The ceremony was overseen by the Acting Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, with remarks from the UN High Representative and Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Mrs. Izumi Nakamitsu.
Representatives from Kazakhstan, as the President of the TPNW Coordination Committee, and South Africa and Uruguay, as co-chairs of the informal working group on universalization of the TPNW, also participated, as well as the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
As of Friday, ninety-four States have signed the TPNW and seventy-three have ratified it or acceded to it.
Other actions undertaken during the 2024 Treaty Event also included actions by States on multilateral treaties aimed at the protection of the environment such as the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean known as the “Escazú Agreement” , the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Background
In September 2000, the Secretary-General of the United Nations invited world leaders attending the landmark Millennium Summit to take advantage of their presence at UN Headquarters to join a wide range of major international treaties. By signing multilateral conventions or depositing their instruments of ratification, accession or through other instruments establishing the consent to be bound, the Member States contribute significantly to the advancement of the rule of law in international relations and the cause of peace.
Since then, the Treaty Event has been held annually, usually coinciding with the general debate of the General Assembly in September. Since 2000, the United Nations Treaty Events have resulted in more than 2,000 treaty-related actions, including signatures, ratifications and accessions.
The Treaty Event may be used to sign and ratify or accede to any of the more than 600 multilateral treaties for which the Secretary-General acts as depositary.
