CODE 18 - 77
Mr Dodds
Mr Reith
Caribbean Department
CSAD
Mr Rosling EAD
Mr Figgis EESD
Mr Popplewell FED
-Mr Hilton Hong Kong Department
Mr Collins, LAD
Mr Day MED
Mr Wheeler NENAD
Mr Smith NAD
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Mr Field SAD
Mr Goldsmith SEAD
Mr Cormack SED
Mr Hime SWPD
Mr Holding WAD
Mr Beattie WED
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UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON SUCCESSION OF STATES ÎN RESPECT `OF TREATIES
1.
A UN Conference is being held in Vienna from 4 April to 6 May to consider. draft articles prepared by the International Law Commission, on the Succession of States in Respect of Treaties. Our delegation will be provided by the
Legal Advisers and led by Sir I Sinclair.
2.
In preparation for the Conference, background on two matters has been requested:
A.
BOUNDARIES.
Article 11 of the draft ILC Articles provides:
a. a boundary established by a treaty; or
b. obligations and rights established by a treaty and relating to the regime
of a boundary."
*
The effect of this Article is to provide for the continuing validity of boundaries laid down by treaties prior to the succession of States, contrary to the general principle established in the draft Articles that a newly independent successor State is not bound by treaties concluded by its predecessor State.
There will be some opposition to
this provision at the Conference, although the majority of States, which will include of course the UK, will be in favour of its inclusion. The opposition of some delegates to the Article will no doubt be based on, or illustrated with, specific examples of boundary disputes in which they are involved. Many of these will be ones in which we have been concerned in the past.
Although the delegation will not of course either need or wish to be involved directly in the arguments that may arise over these disputes, it would be useful for them to have short background notes on matters which are likely to be discussed, both for their own information and, possibly, for use if anything particularly unfounded should be said about the conduct of our Colonial responsibilities in the past.
I should be grateful therefore if action recipients of this minute could provide a short background note on any current (or uneasily dormant) boundary dispute which arises from a boundary established by a treaty which was concluded by a predecessor State (eg a former Colonial Power). If the predecessor State was the UK, the note should include an indication of the line we now take with regard to the dispute. I have in mind such disputes as that between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that between Somalia and Ethiopia and between Somalia and Kenya.
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