INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO CELEBRATE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
Press Release
ICJ/544
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO CELEBRATE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
19960403 THE HAGUE, 2 April (ICJ) -- On 18 April at 10 a.m., the International Court of Justice will hold a Special Sitting to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of its inauguration in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands. At that Sitting, the President of the Court, Judge Mohammed Bedjaoui, will deliver a commemorative address. The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Hans van Mierlo, will also make statements to mark the occasion.Guests at the Sitting will include diplomats, Dutch government officials, representatives of international organizations in The Hague, other officials and members of the press.
The United Nations Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice were signed in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945. The Members of the International Court were elected on 6 February 1946 at the first session of the General Assembly held in London. They met for the first time at the Peace Palace on 3 April 1946. The new Court elected its President, its Vice-President and its Registrar on 6 April and held its inaugural session on 18 April 1946.
The present composition of the Court is as follows: President Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria); Vice-President Stephen M. Schwebel (United States); Judges Shigeru Oda (Japan), Gilbert Guillaume (France), Mohamed Shahabuddeen (Guyana), Christopher G. Weeramantry (Sri Lanka), Raymond Ranjeva (Madagascar), Géza Herczegh (Hungary), Shi Jiuyong (China), Carl-August Fleischhauer (Germany), Abdul G. Koroma (Sierra Leone), Vladlen S. Vereshchetin (Russian Federation), Luigi Ferrari Bravo (Italy), Rosalyn Higgins (United Kingdom), and Gonzalo Parra-Aranguren (Venezuela). The Registrar of the Court is Eduardo Valencia-Ospina (Colombia) and the Deputy- Registrar is Jean-Jacques Arnaldez (France).
Since 1946, the Court has delivered 60 Judgments on disputes concerning, among others, land frontiers and maritime boundaries, territorial sovereignty, the non-use of force, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, diplomatic relations, hostage-taking, the right of asylum, nationality, guardianship, rights of passage and economic rights.
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Eight contentious cases are at present pending, as follows: the Maritime Delimitation and Territorial questions between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain); Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libya v. United Kingdom); Questions of Interpretation and Application of the 1971 Montreal Convention arising from the Aerial Incident at Lockerbie (Libya v. United States); Oil Platforms (Iran v. United States); Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovak Republic); Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria (Cameroon v. Nigeria); and Fisheries Jurisdiction (Spain v. Canada).
Since 1946, the Court has given 21 advisory opinions, concerning such matters as admission to United Nations membership, reparation of injuries suffered in the service of the United Nations, territorial status of South- West Africa (Namibia) and Western Sahara, judgments rendered by international administrative tribunals, expenses of certain United Nations operations, and applicability of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement.
Two requests for an advisory opinion are at present pending: one, made by the World Health Organization (WHO), on the legality of the use by a State of nuclear weapons in armed conflict; and two, made by the United Nations General Assembly, on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
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