Philippines elected as a member in the international trade law body of UN
Posted on November 11th, 2009
The Philippines has won a seat and will a serve a six-year term in the core legal body of the United Nations (UN) in the field of international trade law. According to the Philippine Mission, it’s the first time the country was elected in body, after about 35 years it first served in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the Philippines was elected by acclamation during the 35th plenary meeting of the 64th session of the General Assembly.
According to Davide, the country will be serving its six-year term in UNCITRAL from 2010 to 2016 starting June 21, 2010. The last time the Philippines has a representative in the 60-member UNCITRAL was from 1974 to 1986.
Other countries who also won a seat in the UNCITRAL were Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belaruz, Brazil, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, the United States of America and Venezuela.
There are still two seats left vacant for representatives of Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean respectively.
UNCITRAL was established in 1966 and is mandated to remove legal obstacles to international trade by progressively modernizing and harmonizing trade law. It prepares legal texts in a number of key areas such as modernizing and harmonizing trade law. It prepares legal texts in a number of key areas such as international commercial dispute settlement, electronic commerce, insolvency, international payments, sale of goods, transport law, procurement and infrastructure development.
Aside from the UNCITRAL, the Philippines was also elected last month in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), where the country will serve in a three-year term. ECOSOC is one of the six principal organs of the UN which serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues.
The Philippines was also elected president of the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in May. It was also elected later as vice chairman of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) of the 64th session of the General Assembly and as vice chairman of the 18th session of the Committee on Sustainable Development (CSD).
