Deletion of 'enemy State' clauses in Charter to be considered.

The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization, as it concluded its annual session (27 February-10 March, New York), recommended to the General Assembly the adoption of a resolution which would recognize that the "enemy State" clauses, maintained in the UN Charter for 50 years, have became obsolete.

Under the terms of the draft resolution, the Assembly would express its intention to initiate the procedure set out in Article 108 to "amend the Charter, with prospective effect. by the deletion of the `enemy State' clauses from Articles 53, 77 and 107, at its earliest appropriate future session", the Special Committee reported (A/50/33).

According to Article ,3, the term "enemy State" applies to "any state which during the Second World War has been an enemy of any signatory of the present Charter", that is of the 51 original members of the UN.

In submitting a draft resolution on deletion of those clauses for adoption by the Assembly, the Special Committee stated that substantial changes had taken place in the world since 1945 when the UN Charter was enacted. The States in question were UP) Members and represented a "valuable asset in all the endeavours of the Organization", it stated.

In 1994, by resolution 49/58, the Assembly had asked the Special Committee to recommend the "most appropriate legal action" to be taken on the issue at its fiftieth session.

Article 108 states that amendments to the Charter "shall come into force for all Members of the United Nations when they have been adopted by a vote of two thirds of the members of the General Assembly and ratified in accordance with their respective constitutional processes by two thirds of the Members of the United Nations, including all the permanent members of the Security Council".

The Special Committee, established in 1974 under Assembly resolution 3349 (XXIX), has never before recommended that the Charter be amended, although numerous discussions were held regarding amendments.

Among the Committee's achievement are: the 1982 Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes: the 1988 Declaration on the Prevention and Removal of Disputes and Situations Which May Threaten International Peace and Security and on the Role of the United Nations in this Field; the 1994 Declaration on the Enhancement of Cooperation between the United Nations and Regional Arrangements or Agencies in the Maintenance of International Peace end Security; and the 1991 Declaration on Fact-finding by the United Nations in the Field of the Maintenance of International Peace and Security.

During debate, some delegates fully supported the deletion of the "enemy State" clauses and wanted action to that end as soon as possible, stating that the UN's fiftieth anniversary was a "fitting opportunity in this respect".

Others argued that the matter was "not of an urgent nature", and any decision as to timing should take into account negotiation on a possible increase in the Security Council membership, so as to "avoid repeated recourse" to the procedure in Article 108.

It was also stressed that the question of deleting the "enemy State" clauses should not be taken in isolation, but "viewed as an integral part of the broad process of reforms to the Charter" being examined by the Assembly.

As to precisely how the Charter should be amended to remove references to "enemy States", a proposal was made to: delete the latter part of paragraph 1 of Article 53, beginning with the words "with the exception of measures against any enemy State"; delete paragraph 2 of Article 53; reformulate paragraph 1 (b) of Article 77 to read: "territories which may have been detached as a result of the Second World War"; and reformulate Article 107 to read: "Nothing in the present Charter shall invalidate or preclude action already taken or authorized as a result of the Second World War by any Government representing a State which was an original signatory of the present Charter".

In its report,the 47-member Committee invited the Assembly to consider establishing an open-ended working group to review the implementation of Charter provisions relating to assistance to third States affected by the application of sanctions under Chapter VII, and bring the draft of the UN Model Rules for the Conciliation of Disputes between States, as concluded in second reading, to the attention of Member States.

As for Security Council reform, two proposals--on its democratization and on equitable representation and increase in its membership--were considered.