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Statement by Ms. Guo Xiaomei Counsellor of the Chinese Delegation At the Sixth Committee of the 65th Session of the General Assembly On Consideration of Prevention of Transboundary Harm from Hazardous Activities and Allocation of Loss in the Case of Such Harm

2010-10-21 22:40

Madam Chair,

The International Law Commission, through its unremitting efforts,completed the Draft Articles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harmfrom Hazardous Activities and the Draft Principles on the Allocation ofLoss in the Case of Transboundary Harm Arising out of HazardousActivities respectively in 2001 and 2006.

The Chinese Delegation would like to take this opportunity to express itsappreciation once more to the work done by the ILC. We are of theopinion that the two draft documents will definitely cause a positiveeffect to member states in handling issues relative to transboundary harm.During previous discussions, the Chinese Delegation has commented thesubstances of the two Draft Articles. Now we just want to reiterate two points:

Firstly, as to the definition of "state of origin", in our opinion, theapproach of using territories or places under the practical jurisdiction orcontrol as the sole criterion to identify "state of origin" can not meet theneeds of practices. It's appropriate to take into account the state ofnationality of the operator, the host state of the major part of theoperator's business and the host state of the entity that commands orcontrols operations and other factors as important parameters inidentifying the”state of origin".

Secondly, we suggest adding provisions of exception to or exemptionfrom the obligation of prevention in the Draft Articles on the Preventionof Transboundary Harm from Hazardous Activities. For example, in caseof force majeure such as natural disaster, the state of origin is entitled tobe exempted from relevant prevention obligations.

On the final form of the two documents, the ILC has suggested theGeneral Assembly to elaborate a convention on the basis of the DraftArticles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harm from HazardousActivities and to endorse by a resolution the Draft Principles on theAllocation of Loss in the Case of Transboundary Harm Arising out ofHazardous Activities and urge for its implementation by member states.

With regard to this matter, we would like to refer that the two Drafts dealwith two closely linked stages in handling transboundary harm, it's betterto take an uniform action toward them. Given the fact that both the twoDrafts contain elements of development for the international law, whichneed being tested and further refined by state practices, we propose tocontinue to focus on collecting and observing the development of statepractice at this stage. When the conditions are ripe in the future, we couldrevisit the possibility 'of formulating international conventions on thebasis of the two Drafts.

Thank you Madam Chair.

Thank you Madam Chair.

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