After two years of negotiations, representatives of the United States and twelve Pacific island states signed a five–year regional fisheries treaty that sets forth conditions on U.S. fishing in the region and will guarantee U.S. purchases of at least $1.75 million worth of fishing licenses annually. At the same time, the U.S. fishing industry will provide $250,000 in annual technical assistance to help the island states develop their own fishing industries. The treaty will enter into force after ratification by the United States and ten of the Pacific signatory states. Parties taking part in the negotiations but which have not yet signed the treaty include Niue, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu.

In its Chagos Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) addressed two questions posed in a request from the UN General Assembly. First, had Mauritius's decolonization been completed when it gained independence in 1968, after the excision of the Chagos Archipelago? Second, what were the legal consequences flowing from the United Kingdom's continued administration of the Archipelago? It was thought that the Court might shy away from giving an Opinion in this case as, arguably, it concerned a bilateral sovereignty dispute that the United Kingdom had not agreed to have resolved by judicial decision. However, as it turned out, the Court delivered surprisingly robust responses to the questions posed. The Opinion—and the numerous Separate Opinions that accompanied it—offer a thorough re-evaluation of the customary international law (CIL) concerning the right to self-determination in cases of decolonization.

[The U.S. will suspend enforcement of Title III in lieu of efforts by the EU and other allies to promote democracy in Cuba; the U.S. President will seek authority to grant waivers of enforcement of Title IV to countries that have developed disciplines and principles for the strengthening of investment protection, particularly through the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)]

That, in keeping with the agenda approved by the General Assembly [AG/RES.1613 (XXIX-O/99)], this conference included the subject of international loan contracts of a private nature, in particular the uniformity and harmonization of secured transactions law, as one of the items on its agenda;

On December 13, 2012, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) issued a final judgment in the case of El-Masri v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It found that Macedonia, as a State party to the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention), was responsible for torturing El-Masri while he was in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM) The El-Masri judgment is the first time in which an international court has ruled on the U.S. practice of secret forced renditions. It follows the rationale of Soering v. United Kingdom, that a State can be held responsible for facilitating a violation by a State outside the Council of Europe, and places it in a modern war on terror context.

On January 27, 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC or Committee) published two separate decisions in response to communications brought against Malta and Italy. Both decisions concerned the same incident, which occurred on October 11, 2013, where over 200 migrants drowned in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. The first complaint brought against Malta was dismissed by the Committee on procedural grounds. In the second case, A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. v. Italy, the HRC found that Italy had failed to protect the right to life of the migrants under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This introductory note discusses the significance of the Committee's findings in this decision and its ramifications with respect to the protection of human rights at sea.