Excerpt from John O. Honnold, Uniform Law for International Sales under the 1980 United Nations Convention, 3rd ed. (1999), pages 530-531. Reproduced with permission of the publisher, Kluwer Law International, The Hague.

Designating the Secretary-General of the United Nations as depositary is customary for conventions prepared by the United Nations. Except for one brief reference in Article 99(6), Part IV does not set forth the duties of a depositary. A detailed list of these duties appears in Article 77(1) of the Vienna Treaty on Treaties (1969) and presumably is generally applicable to this Convention. See Evans, B-B Commentary 634. Under Article 77(1)(a) of the Vienna Treaty these duties include "preparing certified copies of the original"—a service that may be important to parties engaged in litigation.

The Secretary-General’s depositary functions are performed by the following office: Depositary Functions of the Treaty Section, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations, New York, 10017. This Office is not able [page 530] to answer telephone inquiries concerning the masses of treaties in its charge. This information is available by Internet: http://www.UN.ORG/Depts/Treaty.  See also, supra, at OVERVIEW, B(i)(c)Internet.