On 20-22 May 2025, the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs conducted a Regional Workshop on Treaty Law and Practice, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the support and collaboration of the Government of Ethiopia, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union. This capacity-building event was the first of such workshops to be organized for representatives of Member States of the African Group in over 10 years.
The Workshop brought together 25 participants from Botswana, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, for two and a half days of discussions and exchanges on various aspects of treaty law and practice. Topics included the role and practice of the Secretary-General of the United Nations as depositary of multilateral treaties, treaty-making at the United Nations, and the registration and publication of treaties under Article 102 of the UN Charter. The programme also featured specialized sessions from representatives of the Office of the Legal Counsel of the African Union Commission, who provided insights on the treaty-making process at the African Union and on the depositary practice of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
The Treaty Section organizes capacity-building workshops twice a year at UN Headquarters in New York, and at the national and regional levels upon invitation by Member States or interested organizations. Notably, in its resolutions 76/120 of 9 December 2021 and 78/236 of 22 December 2023, the General Assembly invited states and interested organizations and institutions to make voluntary contributions towards the financing of regional and national workshops on treaty law and practice.
More information regarding the Treaty Section capacity-building programmes can be found on the United Nations Treaty Collection website.
