National leaders attending General Assembly sign, ratify UN treaties

Many of the Heads of State and Government attending the United Nations General Assembly session have taken the occasion to sign UN treaties, a move that was welcomed today by the Organization's Secretary-General.

"I am heartened that more than 50 countries have accepted my invitation to use the occasion of this General Debate to sign, ratify or accede to a number of treaties related to our fight against terrorism," Kofi Annan said at a luncheon in honour of the national leaders present in New York. "I know that some of you Heads of State and Government are even planning to do this in person and I thank you for it."

During today's treaty event, 11 countries - South Africa, Brazil, Jamaica, Bolivia, Slovenia, Canada, Namibia, Peru, Uruguay, Portugal and Romania - today took 17 legally binding treaty actions with regard to six multilateral treaties at the Head of State, Head of Government or Minister of Foreign Affairs level.

The most popular treaty was the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, which received 7 signatures and 2 ratifications.

Actions were also undertaken with regard to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the two protocols the Convention on the Rights of the Child relating to children and armed conflict and child prostitution.