Montreux Meeting of Experts on Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

The meeting aimed to examine and elaborate on a method for peaceful settlement of disputes, which would complement existing methods. Proposals included negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation and arbitration, as well as mandatory consultations as possible methods.

Participants agreed on a common approach to elaborating a method for peaceful settlement of disputes between or among participating States based on eight points: 

• consistency with the principles and the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and with the Helsinki Final Act 
• consistency with sovereign equality of States and the free choice of means 
• experience and views of all the participating States in this field 
• acceptability to all participating States irrespective of their political, economic or social systems as well as their size, geographical location or level of economic development 
• subsidiarity to existing methods and institutions for the peaceful settlement of international disputes 
• complementarity to existing methods so as to promote a rapid and equitable solution on the basis of international law 
• flexibility of the method 
• capacity for progressive development of the method

Participants recommended that contacts between the governments of participating States continue in order to better acquaint themselves with each other's views on the peaceful settlement of disputes.

This meeting is the first of the series of meetings on peaceful settlement of disputes (PSD) (Montreux 1978, Athens 1984, La Valletta 1991, Geneva 1992)

The meetings led to the adoption of the Convention on PSD in Stockholm (1992), and to the creation of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (1995).