International Court of Justice (ICJ)

• The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, established in June 1945 by the Charter of the UN 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.

• 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 authorised UN organs and specialised agencies.

• Situated at the Peace Palace in the Hague, it is the only one of the six principal organs of the UN that is not located in New York City.

• All members of the UN are automatically parties to the ICJ Statute.

• Only States which are members of the United Nations and which have become parties to the Statute of the Court or which have accepted its jurisdiction under certain conditions, are parties to contentious cases.

• The judgment of ICJ is final and is binding on the parties to a case and there is no provision of appeal.

• The ICJ has 15 judges who are elected to 9 year terms by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, which vote simultaneously but separately.

• English and French are the ICJ’s official languages.

• India has been a party to a case at the ICJ on 6 occasions, 4 of which have involved Pakistan.

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948

• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948 or the Genocide Convention is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide.

• It 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.

• The Convention defines genocide as any of five acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.

• These 5 acts include;

• Killing members of the group

• Causing them serious bodily or mental harm

• Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about it’s physical destruction

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group 

• The Genocide Convention has been ratified or acceded to by 153 States. India ratified the convention in August 1959.

• Convention establishes on State Parties the obligation to take measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide, including by enacting relevant legislation and punishing perpetrators.

• Every year on 9 December, the UN marks the adoption of the Genocide Convention, which is also the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.