scholarly journals Liability and Compensation for Marine Plastic Pollution: Conceptual Issues and Possible Ways Forward

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 206-211
Author(s):  
Sandrine Maljean-Dubois ◽  
Benoît Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Expert Group ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Conceptual Problems

The UN General Assembly and the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) have expressed concerns about the pollution of the sea by plastics, which adversely impacts ecosystems, some economic activities (e.g., tourism and fishing), and possibly public health (e.g., consumption of contaminated fish). In December 2017, the UNEA decided to establish the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics to examine ways to combat marine plastic pollution. The group met three times in 2018 and 2019, and at least two more meetings are planned. Among potential responses to the issue of marine pollution, the group briefly considered—but eventually dismissed—the possibility of creating a liability or compensation regime. This essay evaluates the prospects for such a regime. As the essay will show, compensation faces significant conceptual problems, not the least of which is the absence of an obvious recipient. However, some form of liability could be imposed on corporations that produce plastic, or on states that fail to regulate them. Such a liability regime, even without financial compensation, could foster the prevention of further marine plastic pollution.

Treaty-Making at the United Nations

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-68
Author(s):  
Stephen Mathias
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Multistage Process ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Multilateral Treaty ◽  
Multilateral Treaties

Beginning in the mid-1970s, the UN General Assembly conducted a review of the multilateral treaty-making process. A 1980 Report of the Secretary-General on this review concluded that there was “extensive diversity” among the various procedures that had been utilized in treaty-making processes, including whether such processes made use of established entities or were ad hoc in nature, the extent to which this involved expert or representative bodies, and the extent of the involvement of the General Assembly. The only generalization that was seen to be possible was that such processes almost always involved a multistage process. This chapter assesses the conclusions of the Secretary-General’s 1980 Report in light of the practice of the intervening years, focusing, in particular, on the role of the Secretariat in the treaty-making process, and adopting for the purposes of its analysis the five stages in the multilateral treaty-making process as identified in the Secretary-General’s 1980 Report: initiation of treaty-making, formulation of multilateral treaties, adoption of multilateral treaties, post-adoption concerns, and supplementing and updating treaties. This chapter also briefly discusses other treaty-making activities of the Secretariat.

scholarly journals Modelling plastics exposure for the marine biota: Risk maps for fin whales in the Pelagos Sanctuary (North-Western Mediterranean)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Guerrini ◽  
Lorenzo Mari ◽  
Renato Casagrandi
Keyword(s):  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Marine Biota ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressure ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Fin Whales ◽  
Suitable Habitats ◽  
North Western

AbstractThe Mediterranean basin is among the most impacted marine ecoregions globally, being at the same time semi-enclosed by densely populated countries and crossed by trafficked maritime routes. Such anthropogenic pressure threatens both the qual-ity of its waters and the high biodiversity living in them, making the role of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) crucial for pre-serving species suitable habitats. Under the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive, marine litter has been recognized as one of the principal causes of marine pollution, and public awareness on its environmental and biological impacts is raising. Using a quantitative and data-driven modelling approach, here we assess the presence of plastic waste within the feeding grounds of the fin whale Balaenoptera physalus, an endangered cetacean for which there is increasing evidence of impacts due to microplastic ingestion. To this end, we analyze a decade (2000 - 2010) of advection patterns of marine plastic litter, modelled with a Lagrangian approach. Particles are released in the MPA Pelagos, the International Sanctuary for the Protection of Mediterranean Marine Mammals (North-Western Mediterranean, between France, Italy and Monaco), from different sources (i.e., untreated waste along coasts, plastic discharged from rivers and plastic pollution released along maritime shipping routes). Risk of exposure of fin whales to microplastic pollution is evaluated by interlacing plastic litter distribution maps obtained through modelling with maps of suitable habitats obtained from the elaboration of satellite chlorophyll-a data in species-specific visited areas. Our modelling results show that all the three main sources of plastic litter taken into account clearly contribute to impacting cetaceans in the Sanctuary, yet in a different manner. The procedure formalized here can be extended to assess the risk caused by plastic pollution in other MPAs as well as to evaluate possible impacts on other taxa, thus informing targeted actions to tackle the complex issue of marine litter.

Part 2 The United Nations: What it is, 2 The General Assembly

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Higgins Dame Rosalyn, DBE, QC ◽  
Webb Philippa ◽  
Akande Dapo ◽  
Sivakumaran Sandesh ◽  
Sloan James
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Member States ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations

The UN General Assembly may be described as the world’s leading forum for political discussion. It currently has 193 member states—nearly four times its original membership of 51. In 2005, the General Assembly established an Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the General Assembly and has re-established the group annually. A major preoccupation of the Working Group appears to be relations between the General Assembly and the Security Council, including a concern that the latter organ has encroached on the work of the former. This chapter discusses the General Assembly’s membership, voting, and procedure; meetings, regular, and special sessions; subordinate organs; voting; the role of the President; functions; limitations; and Article 11(2) of the UN Charter.

Status of Forces under the UN Convention on State Immunity

2006 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Deep Appreciation ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Law Commission

The United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 2 December 2004.1 The General Assembly recorded, in the first paragraph of its resolution adopting the Convention, its ‘deep appreciation to the International Law Commission and the Ad Hoc Committee on jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property for their valuable work on the law of jurisdictional immunities of States and their property’. Whatever view one takes as to the merits of the Convention text or the prospects of its success,2 it cannot be doubted that this acknowledgment was well deserved—it is, if anything, an understatement to describe the conclusion of a detailed international instrument on state immunity, embodying the restrictive theory of immunity, as a ‘diplomatic triumph’.

The Case for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly as a Means of Promoting Just Security

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Cabrera
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Over Time

This chapter explores the case for a more formalized United Nations parliamentary assembly, including the potential oversight, accountability, and (ultimately) co-decision roles that such a body could play alongside the UN General Assembly. Given difficulties in expecting national parliamentarians to perform such functions continuously, a UN assembly is found to hold greater potential for promoting key UN system aims in the areas of security, justice, and democratic accountability, even as the existing Inter-Parliamentary Union continued to play some important complementary roles. Learning from relevant global and regional parliamentary bodies, the chapter outlines concrete steps toward developing a parliamentary assembly over time, including the creation of a more informal UN network of UN-focused national parliamentarians in the near term.

The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: to what extent are human rights and sustainable development mutually compatible in the field of migration?

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-252
Author(s):  
Elspeth Guild
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Global Compact ◽  
Un Global Compact ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Un General Assembly

AbstractIn this contribution, I examine the links between the human rights basis of the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and its embeddedness in the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. While the GCM grew out of a development framework, it was rapidly incorporated into the UN human rights system. Even during the negotiation of the GCM, human rights took priority over development. The resistance that was manifested against the GCM on its endorsement by the UN General Assembly was directed not against its development links, but rather concerns about its human rights impact. This paper examines the placing of migration in this dual framework and the ways in which outcomes compatible with both are achievable.

Current State of (Dis)Integration: Public Health and Fusion Centers

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody Minks ◽  
Anke Richter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Public Health Information

AbstractObjectiveResponding to large-scale public health emergencies relies heavily on planning and collaboration between law enforcement and public health officials. This study examines the current level of information sharing and integration between these domains by measuring the inclusion of public health in the law enforcement functions of fusion centers.MethodsSurvey of all fusion centers, with a 29.9% response rate.ResultsOnly one of the 23 responding fusion centers had true public health inclusion, a decrease from research conducted in 2007. Information sharing is primarily limited to information flowing out of the fusion center, with little public health information coming in. Most of the collaboration is done on a personal, informal, ad-hoc basis. There remains a large misunderstanding of roles, capabilities, and regulations by all parties (fusion centers and public health). The majority of the parties appear to be willing to work together, but there but there is no forward momentum to make these desires a reality. Funding and staffing issues seem to be the limiting factor for integration.ConclusionThese problems need to be urgently addressed to increase public health preparedness and enable a decisive and beneficial response to public health emergencies involving a homeland security response.

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