INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARINGS ON CASE CONCERNING

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, RWANDA FROM 4 TO 8 JULY

(Reissued as received.)

THE HAGUE, 9 May (ICJ) -- The International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is to hold public hearings in the case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (New Application:  2002) (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Rwanda), from Monday 4 July to Friday 8 July 2005 at the Peace Palace in The Hague, seat of the Court.

The precise schedule of the hearings will be announced in due course.  It should be noted that they will deal with issues concerning the Court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the Application.

History of Proceedings

On 28 May 2002, the Democratic Republic of the Congo filed an application instituting proceedings against Rwanda in respect of a dispute over “massive, serious and flagrant violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law”, allegedly resulting “from acts of armed aggression perpetrated by Rwanda on the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in . . . violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity [of the latter], as guaranteed by the United Nations and OAU Charters”.

In its application, the Congo, in order to found the jurisdiction of the Court, relied on a certain number of compromissory clauses in treaties.

On the same day, 28 May 2002, the Congo submitted a request for the indication of provisional measures.  Public hearings on that request were held on 13 and 14 June 2002.  Following those hearings, the Court rendered an order on the Congo’s request on 10 July 2002, whereby, on the one hand, it held that it “[did] not in the present case have the prima facie jurisdiction necessary to indicate those provisional measures requested by the Congo” and, on the other, “in the absence of a manifest lack of jurisdiction”, it rejected Rwanda’s request that the case be removed from the list.  The Court further held that its findings in no way prejudged the question of its jurisdiction to deal with the merits of the case or any questions relating to the admissibility of the application, or relating to the merits themselves.

In an order of 18 September 2002, the Court decided that the written pleadings in the case should first be addressed to the questions of the jurisdiction of the Court and the admissibility of the application, and fixed the following time limits for the filing of those pleadings:  20 January 2003 for the Memorial of the Rwandese Republic and 20 May 2003 for the Counter-Memorial of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The pleadings were duly filed within the time limits thus fixed.

Information Contacts:

Arthur Witteveen, First Secretary of the Court, tel.:  +31 70 302 2336; Laurence Blairon and Boris Heim, Information Officers, tel.:  +31 70 302 2337; e-mail:  information@icj-cij.org.

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