AG/RES. 1617 (XXIX-O/99)

INTER-AMERICAN PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

(Resolution adopted at the first plenary session, held on June 7, 1999)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the report of the Permanent Council on the implementation of resolution AG/RES. 1557 (XXVIII-O/98), "Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law";

CONSIDERING:

That resolution AG/RES. 1471 (XXVII-O/97) adopted the Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law, the implementation of which calls for various activities in areas ranging from dissemination, training, and teaching to cooperation in both public and private international law;

That resolution AG/RES. 1557 (XXVIII-O/98) assigned "priority to the provisions of the chapter on the teaching of inter-American international law"; and

That the Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law also stressed the need to promote publications that provide for inter-American legal topics to be raised, publicized, and discussed;

BEARING IN MIND the activities carried out by the General Secretariat to implement this inter-American program; and

NOTING WITH CONCERN that, in recent years, the Organization's legal publications have declined significantly in number,

RESOLVES:

1. To reaffirm the necessity of continuing to carry out the various activities listed in the Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law as an indispensable means of strengthening international law.

2. To urge the General Secretariat, through the Secretariat for Legal Affairs, to continue to organize subregional courses on international law in consultation with the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the Permanent Council.

3. To request the General Secretariat to resume without delay publication of the Inter-American Juridical Yearbook, so that it may bring together and make available the most expert doctrine in the Hemisphere on the various aspects and topics of inter-American law and new developments on the hemispheric agenda, and to ensure its widest possible distribution.

4. Also to request the General Secretariat to submit to the Permanent Council, within two months, a report containing proposals for publications, which shall cover both matters of distribution and means of financing.

5. To request the General Secretariat, through the Secretariat for Legal Affairs, and in order to allow for an ongoing exchange of information among scholars of international law, to set up a network made up initially of former fellows and professors of the Course on International Law, which is held each year in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

6. To instruct the Permanent Council to monitor the implementation of this resolution, which shall be carried out within resources allocated in the program-budget and other resources; and to request that Council to report thereon to the General Assembly at its thirtieth regular session.