At the fifty-second session of the General Assembly, the Sixth (Legal) Committee reviewed the annual reports of the International Law Commission (ILC), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (Special Committee) and the Committee on Relations with the Host Country (Host Country Committee). The Sixth Committee also considered proposals for three new legal instruments relating to (1) the establishment of a permanent international criminal court, (2) international terrorism and (3) jurisdictional immunities of states and their property, as well as other topics concerning the United Nations internal justice system, the United Nations Decade of International Law (Decade) and the United Nations Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law. The topics are discussed in the order in which they were considered by the committee.

At the fifty-first session of the General Assembly, the Sixth (Legal) Committee reviewed the annual reports of the International Law Commission (ILC), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (Special Committee) and the Committee on Relations with the Host Country (Host Country Committee). The Sixth Committee also considered proposals for two new legal instruments relating to (1) the establishment of a permanent international criminal court, and (2) the non-navigational uses of international watercourses, as well as other topics concerning international terrorism, international humanitarian law, diplomatic and consular law, the United Nations internal justice system, the United Nations Decade of International Law (Decade) and the “New International Economic Order.” The topics are discussed in the order in which they were considered by the committee.

At the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly, the Sixth (Legal) Committee reviewed the annual reports of the International Law Commission (ILC), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (Special Committee), and the Committee on Relations with the Host Country (Host Country Committee). The Sixth Committee also considered proposals for two new legal instruments relating to (1) the jurisdictional immunities of states and their property, and (2) the safety and security of United Nations personnel. Other items covered by the committee included a proposal to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on questions regarding extraterritorial jurisdiction, as well as topics concerning international terrorism, economic relations, procedural aspects of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and the United Nations Decade of International Law (Decade).

At the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly, the Sixth Committee1reviewed the annual reports of the International Law Commission (ILC), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (Charter Committee), and the Committee on Relations with the Host Country. The Sixth Committee also considered proposals for new legal instruments relating to some aspects of sovereign immunity, consular functions, the diplomatic courier and bag, and environmental protection in wartime; a proposal to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on questions relating to extraterritorial jurisdiction; and aspects of such other topics as national liberation movements, humanitarian law, protection of diplomats, and the United Nations Decade of International Law.

1. A Finnish national programme to fertilize crops with sodium selenate led us to compare the nutritional availability to rats of selenium in two Finnish spring wheats (Triticum aestivum L.), either fertilized or sprayed with sodium selenate, with that in an American winter bread wheat naturally high in Se.

2. Weanling male rats were given a Se-deficient Torula yeast diet for 4 weeks followed by either continued depletion or repletion for 4 weeks with graded levels of Se as sodium selenite (standard) or wheat (test food). Plasma and liver Se levels and plasma and liver glutathione peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.9; GSH-Px) activities were used as criteria of body Se status.

3. The availability of Se under these conditions was calculated with the point-slope technique at two dietary levels of Se (Expt 1) and with the slope-ratio method (Expt 2).

4. In the point-slope assay, the level of dietary Se fed had a considerable effect on the apparent availability values obtained which made interpretation of the results difficult. In the slope-ratio assay, no difference in the availability of Se from the various wheats was observed when plasma or liver Se levels were used as the response criteria.

5. The Se in the fertilized wheat was somewhat more available than that in the sprayed wheat when plasma or liver GSH-Px activities were the response criteria. Overall, availability values (% ) derived by averaging all four response criteria were 86, 77 and 73 for the fertilized and sprayed Finnish wheats and the American wheat respectively (sodium selenite 100).

6. These results show that wheat is a relatively available source of Se to rats regardless of whether its Se content is naturally high or is increased by fertilization or spraying.

1. The present study was conducted to determine the biological availability to rats of the selenium in four high-Se seafoods: crab (CuZlinectes supidus), oyster (Crassostrea virginica), shrimp (Penueus duorarum) and Baltic herring (Clupea harengus).

2. Weanling male rats were fed on a Se-deficient Torula yeast diet for 4 weeks followed by either continued depletion or repletion for 4 weeks with 0.05, 0.1 or 0.2 μg Se as selenite/g, or 0.1 or 0.2 μg Se as freeze-dried cooked test food/g. Plasma and liver Se levels or glutathione peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.9; GSH-Px) activities were used as indicators of body Se status.

3. Except for oysters, the biological availability of Se in all these seafoods was close to that of selenite (selenite 100%) when the criterion used was either plasma Se level or plasma GSH-Px activity.

4. By the criterion of increased liver Se level of restored hepatic GSH-Px activity, only herringSe had a biological availability comparable to that of selenite-Se under all conditions tested, whereas crab-Se and oyster-Se were distinctly inferior in this regard.

5. Increasing the amount of crab-Se, oyster-Se or shrimp-Se supplied in the diet from 0.1 to 0.2 μg/g changed the apparent availability (%) of Se for hepatic GSH-Px restoration from 38 to 78, 22 to 53 and 57 to 90 respectively.

6. The present study demonstrates that the availability of Se in certain foods is a function of the criterion chosen, the level of Se supplied in the diet, and possibly other unknown interacting dietary factors.