Sixth Committee (Legal) — 79th session
The scope and application of the principle of universal jurisdiction (Provisional agenda item 85)
- Authority: resolution 78/113
Documentation
Documents will be listed as they become available.
Additional documents from previous sessions:
- Reports of the Secretary-General:
A/78/130 | A/77/186 | A/76/203 | A/75/151 | A/74/144 | A/73/123 + Add.1 | A/72/112 | A/71/111 | A/70/125 | A/69/174 | A/68/113 | A/67/116 | A/66/93 + Add.1 | A/65/181 - A/C.6/77/SR.35, A/C.6/75/SR.17 | A/C.6/74/SR.34 | A/C.6/73/SR.33 — Summary records of the 35th meeting (10 November 2022), the 17th meeting (11 November 2020), the 34th meeting (11 November 2019) and the 33rd meeting (5 November 2018)
- A/C.6/66/WG.3/1 — Informal Working Paper
- A/C.6/66/WG.3/DP.1 — Informal paper of the Working Group: Non-paper by Chile
- Informal Working Paper (Annex)
Summary of work
Background (source: A/79/100)
The item entitled “The scope and application of the principle of universal jurisdiction” was included in the agenda of the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly at the request of the United Republic of Tanzania on behalf of the Group of African States (A/63/237/Rev.1). The Assembly has had the item on its agenda annually since then (resolutions 64/117, 65/33, 66/103, 67/98, 68/117, 69/124, 70/119, 71/149, 72/120, 73/208, 74/192, 75/142, 76/118, 77/111 and 78/113).
At its seventy-eighth session, the Assembly allocated the item to the Sixth Committee, where statements in the debate were made by 59 delegations (see A/C.6/78/SR.12–13). The Assembly reiterated its decision to establish, at its seventy-ninth session, a working group of the Sixth Committee to continue to undertake a thorough discussion of the scope and application of universal jurisdiction and invited the working group to consider and comment on the question “on the relevant elements of a working concept of universal jurisdiction”. The Assembly also decided that the working group would be open to all Member States and that relevant observers to the Assembly would be invited to participate in the work of the working group. The Assembly invited Member States and relevant observers, as appropriate, to submit information and observations on the scope and application of universal jurisdiction, including, where appropriate, information on the relevant applicable international treaties and on their national legal rules and judicial practice, and requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to the Assembly at its seventy-ninth session reviewing all the submissions of Member States and relevant observers, as well as views expressed in the debates of the Sixth Committee, since the sixty-second session of the Assembly and identifying possible convergences and divergences on the definition, scope and application of universal jurisdiction for the consideration of the Sixth Committee (resolution 78/113).
