Ukraine Moves International Court of Justice, Files Case Against Russia : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Key Phrases: International Court of Justice(ICJ), Genocide Convention, Permanent Court of International Justice, Commonwealth nations, Corfu channel.

Why in News?

Ukraine has filed an application before the International Court of Justice(ICJ) Instituting proceedings against the Russian Federation concerning “a dispute…relating to the interpretation, application and fulfilment of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (the “,Genocide Convention”).
Ukraine has accused Russia of falsely claiming that "acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine", and of using that as a pretext to recognise the independence of these regions and of going to war against Ukraine.

Note:-

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide.
The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948 and signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War.
Its adoption marked a crucial step towards the development of international human rights and international criminal law as we know it today.

Background

Ukraine had earlier accepted the ICC's jurisdiction to look into alleged crimes under the Rome Statute committed on Ukrainian territory from November 2013 to 22 February 2014. Also, in a subsequent declaration, Ukraine extended this time period on an open-ended basis to encompass ongoing alleged crimes committed throughout its territory from 20 February 2014 onwards.
According to a report in the Associated Press, these crimes relate to the violent suppression of pro-European protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014 by a pro-Russian Ukrainian administration and allegations of crimes in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and eastern Ukraine, where Russia has backed rebels since 2014.
Amid the ongoing probe into these crimes, the ICC Prosecutor has now decided to expand the scope of investigation to cover alleged crimes that are committed by any party to the conflict on any party of the Ukrainian territory during the Russian military invasion.

International court of Justice

The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
The court is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was brought into being through, and by, the League of Nations, and which held its inaugural sitting at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, in February 1922.
Judge José Gustavo Guerrero of El Salvador, became the first president of the ICJ.
The first case, which was brought by the UK against Albania and concerned incidents in the Corfu channel - the narrow strait of the Ionian Sea between the Greek island of Corfu and Albania on the European mainland - was submitted in May 1947.
According to the ICJ’s own description, its role is “to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies”. The court “as a whole must represent the main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world”.
The judges of the court are assisted by a Registry, the administrative organ of the ICJ. English and French are the ICJ’s official languages.
All members of the UN are automatically parties to the ICJ statute, but this does not automatically give the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes involving them. The ICJ gets jurisdiction only if both parties consent to it.
The judgment of the ICJ is final and technically binding on the parties to a case. There is no provision of appeal; it can at the most, be subject to interpretation or, upon the discovery of a new fact, revision.
However, the ICJ has no way to ensure compliance of its orders, and its authority is derived from the willingness of countries to abide by them.
The ICJ has 15 judges who are elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, which vote simultaneously but separately. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of the votes in both bodies, a requirement that sometimes necessitates multiple rounds of voting. Elections are held at the UNHQ in New York during the annual UNGA meeting.
A third of the court is elected every three years. The judges elected at the triennial election commence their term of office on February 6 of the following year. The president and vice-president of the court are elected for three-year terms by secret ballot. Judges are eligible for re-election.

India at the ICJ

Four Indians have been members of the ICJ so far. Justice Dalveer Bhandari, former judge of the Supreme Court, has been serving at the ICJ since 2012. Former Chief Justice of India R S Pathak served from 1989-91, and former Chief Election Commissioner of India Nagendra Singh from 1973-88. Singh was also president of the court from 1985-88, and vice-president from 1976-79. Before him, Sir Benegal Rau, who was an advisor to the Constituent Assembly, was a member of the ICJ from 1952-53.
India has been a party to a case at the ICJ on six occasions, four of which have involved Pakistan. They are:
1. Right of Passage over Indian Territory (Portugal v. India, culminated 1960);
2. Appeal Relating to the Jurisdiction of the ICAO Council (India v. Pakistan, culminated 1972);
3. Trial of Pakistani Prisoners of War (Pakistan v. India, culminated 1973);
4. Aerial Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India, culminated 2000);
5. Obligations concerning Negotiations relating to Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear Disarmament (Marshall Islands v. India, culminated 2016).
6. Kulbhushan Jadhav (India v. Pakistan, culminated 2019).
Among the matters over which India does not accept ICJ jurisdiction are: “disputes with the government of any State which is or has been a Member of the Commonwealth of Nations”, and “disputes relating to or connected with facts or situations of hostilities, armed conflicts, individual or collective actions taken in self-defence…”. The declaration, which includes other exceptions as well, has been ratified by Parliament.

Way Forward

Taking into the consideration of current scenario ICJ should work actively to give justice to the parties and neutralize the situation as soon as possible.
History tells us humanity has suffered at the hands of hypermasculine autocratic leaders who set out on the path of achieving mythical civilizational greatness.
International law should be marshalled to constrain arbitrary state power and check imperial designs. Or else the sustenance of a rule based international order shall remain a pipe dream.

Sources: Indian Express

Mains Questions:

Q. What is The International Court of Justice ? Briefly discuss its role in adjudicating disputes between nation in the world .(250 word).