REQUEST FOR ADVISORY OPINION ON ISSUE OF IMMUNITY OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO BE CONSIDERED BY ICJ ON 7-8 DECEMBER
Press Release
ECOSOC/5805
ICJ/559
REQUEST FOR ADVISORY OPINION ON ISSUE OF IMMUNITY OF SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO BE CONSIDERED BY ICJ ON 7-8 DECEMBER
19981113 THE HAGUE, 13 November (ICJ) -- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold public sittings on Monday, 7 December, and Tuesday, 8 December, in order to hear oral statements in the case concerning the Difference Relating to Immunity from Legal Process of a Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights (request for an advisory opinion).The United Nations will be the first to speak. Costa Rica, Italy and Malaysia will follow.
The Court may also, if it considers it necessary, hold a public sitting on Thursday, 10 December, in order to hear any replies to the oral arguments.
By an Order dated 10 August, Judge Shigeru Oda, the Senior Judge, decided that the United Nations and the States parties to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations (the interpretation or application of which is the source of the difference) might furnish information on the question submitted to the Court by the Economic and Social Council. He fixed 7 October as the time-limit within which written statements on the question could be submitted to the Court.
Besides Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the following States submitted written statements within the time-limit fixed: Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. Greece submitted a written statement after expiry of the time-limit, but the President of the Court gave leave for this late filing.
Further, as provided by the Order of 10 August, the Secretary-General and the above-mentioned eight States had until 6 November to file written comments on the other written statements. Besides the Secretary-General, the following States submitted such written comments: Costa Rica, Malaysia and United States. A written communication was also received from Luxembourg.
The written statements and the written comments are not yet available to the press and public. They will be made public after the opening of the oral proceedings.
- 2 - Press Release ECOSOC/5805 ICJ/559 13 November 1998
The request for an advisory opinion was made last August by the Economic and Social Council. The case relates to Param Cumaraswamy, a Malaysian jurist who in 1994 was appointed Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers by the Commission on Human Rights, a subsidiary organ of the Council.
Mr. Cumaraswamy currently faces several lawsuits filed in Malaysian courts by different plaintiffs for damages in a total amount of $112 million. The plaintiffs assert that he used defamatory language in an interview he gave in 1995 to International Commercial Litigation magazine.
However, according to the Secretary-General, Mr. Cumaraswamy spoke in his official capacity of Special Rapporteur and was thus immune from legal process by virtue of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
Moves by the United Nations Secretary-General to ensure respect for this immunity did not lead, in his view, to any appropriate intervention by the Malaysian Government in the Malaysian courts.
The verbatim records of the oral proceedings will be available on a daily basis on the website of the Court (http://www.icj-cij.org).
For further information contact Arthur Witteveen, Secretary of the Court (tel: 31-70-302-2336), or Laurence Blairon, Information Officer (tel: 31-70- 302-2337).
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