Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thao has been elected as the Second Vice Chairman of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) during the commission’s 70th session in New York, the US.

Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thao 

The ILC’s 70th session is being held at the UN headquarters from April 30 to June 1, and will continue from July 3 to August 10 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Over the course of the session, the commission will discuss a number of the current issues in international law, including the application of treaties and the practice of interpretation of international treaties, the identification of customary international law, the protection of the atmosphere, the protection of the environment in armed conflicts, and the succession of States in respect of State responsibility, among others.

During discussions, the Vietnamese delegation has proposed establishing international regulations on the basis of respecting the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of States as well as human rights and sustainable development.

Ambassador Thao, an international law expert with a consistent academic background as a Doctor with profound experience, became a member of the ILC in November 2016.

He was deputy head of the National Border Committee, head of the negotiation teams on border agreements with neighbouring countries, and a legal advisor to the drafting process of Vietnam’s 2012 Law of the Sea.

From 2011 to 2014, he served as the Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia. He has been Vietnam’s ambassador to Kuwait since 2014.

The ILC, UN’s subsidiary organ established in 1947, is in charge of compiling international treaties, drafting international conventions, and studying major issues related to international law. It has 34 members, who are elected once every five years.

VNA