Depositary

Last updated

In international law, a depositary is a government or organization to which a multilateral treaty is entrusted. [1] The principal functions of a depositary are codified in Article 77 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. [2]

Contents

Belgium

Belgium's Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves as the depositary for multilateral treaties such as the treaty establishing Eurocontrol. [3]

Canada

Canada's Global Affairs Canada Treaty Law Division serves as the depositary for multilateral treaties such as the Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement. [4] Canada is also one of two depositories for the Treaty on Open Skies along with Hungary.

France

France's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs serves as the depositary for multilateral treaties such as the Geneva Protocol. [5]

Italy

Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves as the depositary for multilateral treaties such as the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (a predecessor to the European Union). [6]

New Zealand

New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade serves as the depositary for multilateral treaties such as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership. [7]

Russia

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves as the depositary for multilateral treaties such as the Biological Weapons Convention, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. [8]

Switzerland

Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland serves as the depositary for 78 multilateral treaties including the Geneva Conventions. [9]

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office currently acts as the depositary for documents such as Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space, Constitution of UNESCO, and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction. [10] [11] Public copies are supplied by The Stationery Office and the British Library. [11]

United States

The United States Department of State is currently the depositary for more than 200 multilateral treaties, including the Charter of the United Nations, Convention on International Civil Aviation, North Atlantic Treaty, Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, and the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. [12] Generally, the United States executes its responsibilities in accordance with the will of each individual treaty or, in lieu of such provision, as per the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. [12]

United Nations Secretary-General

The United Nations Secretary-General serves as the depositary for numerous multilateral treaties, including the Chemical Weapons Convention, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. [13]

Related Research Articles

Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. Historically, arms control may apply to melee weapons before the invention of firearm. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international treaties and agreements, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outer Space Treaty</span> Basis of international space law

The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a multilateral treaty that forms the basis of international space law. Negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the United Nations, it was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, entering into force on 10 October 1967. As of August 2023, 114 countries are parties to the treaty—including all major spacefaring nations—and another 22 are signatories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties</span> International agreement

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) is an international agreement that regulates treaties among sovereign states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological Weapons Convention</span> 1975 treaty that comprehensively bans biological weapons

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), is a disarmament treaty that effectively bans biological and toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use. The treaty's full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conference on Disarmament</span> Multilateral disarmament forum

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a multilateral disarmament forum established by the international community to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements based at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Conference meets annually in three separate sessions in Geneva.

The Cook Islands maintains diplomatic relations with various countries and is a member of multilateral organisations. While the country is in free association with New Zealand, which can act on the Cook Islands' "delegated authority [...] to assist the Cooks Islands" in foreign affairs, the Cook Islands nevertheless enters into treaty obligations and otherwise "interacts with the international community as a sovereign and independent state."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons</span>

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The campaign helped bring about this treaty. ICAN was launched in 2007. In 2022, it counted 661 partner organizations in 110 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone</span> Organization

The South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone was created in 1986 through resolution A/RES/41/11 of the U.N. general assembly on Brazil's initiative, with the aim of promoting cooperation and the maintenance of peace and security in the South Atlantic region. Particular attention was dedicated to the question of preventing the geographical proliferation of nuclear weapons and of reducing and eventually eliminating the military presence of countries from other regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs</span> Office of the United Nations Secretariat

The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is an Office of the United Nations Secretariat established in January 1998 as the Department for Disarmament Affairs, part of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to reform the UN as presented in his report to the General Assembly in July 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Budapest Memorandum</span> 1994 OSCE conference agreements

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances comprises three substantially identical political agreements signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary, on 5 December 1994, to provide security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The three memoranda were originally signed by three nuclear powers: the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.

Ambassador Ersin Erçin is a senior Turkish diplomat, with an extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy particularly on matters of international, Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security, disarmament, and economic and environmental security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sameh Shoukry</span> Egyptian diplomat (born 1952)

Sameh Hassan Shoukry (Arabic: سامح شكري; born 20 October 1952) is an Egyptian diplomat who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2014. Previously, Shoukry served as the Ambassador of Egypt to the United States from 2008 to 2012.

The Humanitarian Initiative is a group of states that evolved within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and nuclear weapons diplomacy more widely. 159 states subscribed to the last iteration of the initiative's Joint Statement in 2015. Since 2013, it led to a series of conferences exploring the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, culminating in the Humanitarian Pledge, issued by the Austrian Government, to "fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons". The Pledge has been endorsed by 108 governments as of 1 June 2015. The Humanitarian Initiative is seen as a direct answer to the lack of progress in nuclear disarmament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons</span> Legally binding international agreement to prohibit nuclear weapons

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It was adopted on 7 July 2017, opened for signature on 20 September 2017, and entered into force on 22 January 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Aust, Anthony (2010-04-30). Handbook of International Law (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–102. ISBN   978-0-521-11705-0.
  2. ↑ "Article 77 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Treaties signed at Vienna on 23 May 1969". Archived from the original on 2 May 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Liste des accords dont la Belgique est dépositaire" (in French). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium . Retrieved 2018-12-26.
  4. ↑ "Welcome to the Treaty Law Division". Treaty Law Division . Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  5. ↑ "Protocole concernant la prohibition d'emploi à la guerre de gaz asphyxiants, toxiques ou similaires et de moyens bactériologiques, fait à Genève le 17 juin 1925" (in French). Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of France . Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  6. ↑ "Archivio dei Trattati internazionali Online" (in Italian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy . Retrieved 2018-12-26. Archived 2016-11-10 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "Treaties for which New Zealand is the depositary". Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Archived from the original on 5 November 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  8. ↑ "Перечень многосторонних международных договоров (Российская Федерация является депозитарием)" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia . Retrieved 2013-07-24.
  9. ↑ "Depositary". Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland . Retrieved 2013-07-24.
  10. ↑ "Treaties for which the UK is depositary". Foreign and Commonwealth Office . Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  11. 1 2 "Depositary". Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Archived from the original on 2013-01-04. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
  12. 1 2 "Multilateral Treaties for which the United States is Depositary". United States Department of State . Retrieved 2012-01-30.
  13. ↑ "Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General". United Nations Treaty Series . Retrieved 2013-07-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.