Gambia v Myanmar (1) - International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ):

ICJ - 10 December 2019

The ICJ exists by virtue of Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter.

Article 92 of the Charter states - "The International Court of Justice shall be the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It shall function in accordance with the annexed Statute, which ..... forms an integral part of the present Charter.  The Statute sets out the Organization of the Court (Chapter I), the Competence of the Court (Chapter II), Procedure (Chapter III), Advisory Opinions (Chapter IV) and, finally, Chapter V sets down the process for amending the Statute.

The Statute

Radovan KARADŽIĆ - appeal

Srebrenica

On 12 May 1992, Radovan Karadžić was elected as the President of the Presidency of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From 17 December 1992, he was the sole President of Republika Srpska and the Supreme Commander of the armed forces of Republika Srpska.

He was sentenced by an ICTY Trial Chamber to 40 years' imprisonment on 24 March 2016.

Chagos

The International Court of Justice has handed down an Advisory Opinion concerning the Chagos Islands - where the important military base Diego Garcia is located.  The ICJ found that the process of decolonialisation of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when the country acceded to independence and that the UK is under an obligation to bring to an end its administrattion of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.

The Guardian 25 February 2019.

Advisory Opinion of 25 February 2019

Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 (Request for Advisory Opinion) 

Press release No. 2019/9 

 

The Court's Opinion:

International Criminal Court

See the Open University presentations on the International Criminal Court.

Youtube -The Court - Inside the International Criminal Court (1/5)

The Offices - Inside the International Criminal Court (2/5)

The Barristers - Inside the International Criminal Court (3/5)

Thomas Lubanga case study - Inside the International Criminal Court (4/5)

Saif al-Islam case study - Inside the International Criminal Court (5/5)

also see

BBC 3 October 2018 - Why is the International Criminal Court under attack?

Monash University 30 November 2017 - Does the International Criminal Court have an impossible mission?

Note:

Thomas Lubanga was the first individual to be convicted by the ICC.  Thomas Lubanga was found guilty in March 2012  of abducting boys and girls under the age of 15 and forcing them to fight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern Ituri region in 2002-2003.

Saif al-Islam (also known as Saif al-Islam Gaddafi) - see the case history