Page 12 - EPLO ACTIVITY REPORT 2023
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MISSIONS TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Mission to the UN in New York
The EPLO Mission to the United Nations represents EPLO and serves as the EPLO delegation to the United Nations
headquarters in New York. The Mission seeks to promote the values of peace, human rights, solidarity and the
rule of law around the globe and in a fruitful dialogue of cultures. Following the resolution A/73/462 “Observer
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status for the European Public Law Organization in the General Assembly” – adopted unanimously on 1
November 2018 – the EPLO was invited to participate in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly. EPLO’s
appointment to Observer Status was the outcome of a long process initiated under the aegis of Portugal. The
Permanent Mission of EPLO to the UN is headed by Permanent Representative and Ambassador Barbara Faedda,
Ph.D., who presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 21 May 2019.
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The 77 General Assembly was again held in presence and EPLO was able to attend the proceedings in person.
However, the United Nations still maintained a hybrid format and similarly EPLO’s Mission organized events both
in person and online.
On 10 October 2022 - Sixth Committee of the General Assembly of the UN, Mr. Luca CM Melchionna, Esq., EPLO’s
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legal counselor, took the floor during the 9 meeting of the General Assembly to present EPLO’s “Global Rule of
Law Initiative, the establishment of the Global Rule of Law Commission”. The statement is available in the US
Audiovisual library at this address from minutes 1:26:05 to 1:29:58.
On 14 November 2022, following the EPLO Global Rule of Law Initiative, launched in 2019, organized an event, as
mentioned before, sponsored by the Permanent Representations of Greece, Italy, Mozambique and Portugal to
the United Nations - for the presentation of the Global Rule of Law Commission, available to all the nations to
provide, if asked, advice and expertise on issues of Rule of Law.
With reference to the ECOSOC application - In February 2023, it has been closed for apparently not fulfilling the
eligibility requirements.
Roundtable discussion on the complex relationship between people and the rule of law
19 April 2023
The EPLO co-sponsored the roundtable discussion
“People, Rule of Law and Supreme Courts Now”,
held at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies,
Columbia University. Four constitutional court
judges - Giuliano Amato, former President of the
Italian Constitutional Court, Susanne Baer, Judge
of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany,
Stephen G. Breyer, retired Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States, and Ana
Maria Guerra Martins, Judge of the European
Court of Human Rights and former Judge of the
Constitutional Court of Portugal - reflected on the
present and future of the complex relationship
Ms. Barbara Faedda, the Permanent Observer for the EPLO to the UN, between people and the rule of law, which has a
at the roundtable discussion “People, Rule of Law and Supreme Courts direct effect on every person. Moderator was
Now” Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Betts Professor of Law at
Columbia Law School. The event was organized, opened and closed by Ambassador Barbara Faedda, Ph.D., in her
double capacity as permanent observer of the EPLO to the United Nations and Executive Director of the Italian
Academy. In his welcome remarks, EPLO Director Professor Spyridon Flogaitis explained EPLO’s long interest in
the rule of law and the many initiatives in this regard. For this distinguished group of speakers - the most
authoritative and competent legal minds of their countries - Columbia’s students and professors, as well as
diplomats from the United Nations filled the Italian Academy’s splendid Neo-Renaissance Theater.
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