The 2009 United Nations International Law Fellowship Programme was successfully completed on 14 August 2009.

  The 2009 Fellowship Programme, which was conducted in English, took place on the premises of the Peace Palace in The Hague in the Netherlands, city of peace and justice, for a period of 6 weeks, from 6 July to 14 August 2009.   The United Nations International Law Fellowship Programme was launched under the United Nations Programme of Assistance in the teaching, study, dissemination and wider appreciation of international law, established by General Assembly resolution 2099 (XX) of 20 December, 1965. Taking place on an annual basis, the Fellowship Programme is organized by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) in cooperation with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).   The 2009 fellowship programme attracted 269 applications from 125 countries and organizations worldwide. Special efforts were made to have a good gender balance as well as a fair regional/geographical distribution.   The 21 participants (ten males and eleven females) came from the following countries: Bahamas, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Fiji, Jordan, Lesotho, Liberia, Oman, Romania, Samoa, Slovakia, Spain, Suriname, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Uganda.   With the purpose of providing qualified participants from least developed and developing countries as well as from countries with economies in transition with an opportunity to update and deepen their knowledge of recent developments in international law, the 2009 programme included the following topics:

International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, International Refugee Law, Law of the Sea, International Environmental Law, International Trade Law/ The Multilateral Trading System, International Investment Law, Regional Economic Integration Agreements as well as briefings on the International Protection of Human Rights.

Between 27 July and 13 August, for the duration of three weeks, the participants also attended the lectures of the Public International law session offered by The Hague Academy of International Law. Complementary to these seminars and lectures, the participants undertook study visits to several international institutions based in The Hague and briefings and special sessions were also arranged with Judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as well as with the Deputy Registrar of the ICJ.   As to feedback from the side of the participants, the overall programme objectives and participants’ expectations were entirely met, as shown by the results of the evaluations in which 80% of the participants considered the training programme to be useful in light of their professional tasks and 100% would recommend this programme to other lawyers and colleagues back home. Here are some examples:   “This is an excellent program that I would advise all lawyers to apply to. The interaction with the experts in each of the international law areas was of great value, in addition to the interaction with the participants. Thank you again for the opportunity.”   “I am glad to have been part of this training programme and would definitely recommend other people that I come in contact with to be a part of it. At the end of the day, UNITAR goes a long way in ensuring that the participants from developing countries get an opportunity of being able to keep themselves abreast with the recent developments in the field of international law and moreover provide them with an idea as to the real functioning of the international institutions in action by way of study visits. Very useful I should say!”   The 2010 United Nations International Law Fellowship Programme will take place in The Hague/the Netherlands. The course language will be in French.   Information about the 2010 programme will be available towards the end of November 2009 at the following website: http://www.unitar.org/ilp/international_law_fellowship_programme