This summer, at its sixty-ninth session, the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) completed a first reading of the draft articles on a global convention for crimes against humanity. The Commission considered Special Rapporteur Sean Murphy’s third report, taking into account the views expressed during the summer session on this topic. The Chairperson of the Drafting Committee, Mr. Aniruddha Rajput, presented two statements—the first in June 2017 and second in July 2017—on the ILC’s work and the Drafting Committee subsequently adopted, on first reading, a draft preamble, 15 draft articles and a draft annex, together with commentaries thereto, on crimes against humanity. The International Law Commission’s full Report from the summer session is available here, and the summary is available here.
Pursuant to Articles 16-21 of its Statute, the Commission has submitted the draft articles to the General Assembly and is now awaiting comments from Governments, international organizations and others, with the request that such comments and observations be submitted to the Secretary-General by December 1, 2018. Government responses during the last four sessions of the UN General Assembly Sixth Committee meetings have been largely positive and the session this year is especially important.