Swearing-in of three new Members of the Court at a public sitting on Friday 6 February 2015 at 10 a.m.

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928 Website: http://www.icj-cij.org

Press Release Unofficial

No. 2015/1
14 January 2015

Swearing-in of three new Members of the Court at a public sitting on Friday 6 February 2015 at 10 a.m.

THE HAGUE, 14 January 2015. The three Members of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) elected at the end of 2014 will be officially sworn in at a public sitting to be held on Friday 6 February 2015 at 10 a.m. in the Great Hall of Justice at the Peace Palace, The Hague, where the Court has its seat.

Mr. Patrick Lipton Robinson, of Jamaican nationality, Mr. James Richard Crawford, of Australian nationality, and Mr. Kirill Gevorgian, of Russian nationality, will each make before the Court the solemn declaration provided for in Article 20 of the Statute. Article 20 stipulates that “[e]very Member of the Court shall, before taking up his duties, make a solemn declaration in open court that he will exercise his powers impartially and conscientiously”.

Mr. Crawford and Mr. Gevorgian were elected Members of the Court on 7 November 2014. Mr. Robinson was elected a Member of the Court on 17 November 2014. Their nine-year terms of office will begin on 6 February 2015.

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The swearing-in ceremony will be broadcast live (web streaming) on the Court’s website and on UN Web TV.

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Admission procedures

Owing to the limited number of seats available in the Great Hall of Justice, priority access will be given to invited guests and members of the diplomatic corps.

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1. Diplomatic corps
Diplomats wishing to attend this event are kindly requested to send an e-mail to

confirmation@icj-cij.org before 12 noon on Monday 2 February 2015. 2. Media

An online accreditation procedure is open to the media; this will close at midnight on Wednesday 4 February 2015. Further details can be found below in the section “Practical information for the media”.

3. Public

A small number of seats will be allocated to members of the public on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no advance registration procedure for members of the public, and admission requests submitted beforehand will not be considered.

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Only the Court’s official photographer and camera crew will be authorized to film and take photographs in the Great Hall of Justice.

Practical information for the media

1. Entry to the Peace Palace

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Journalists can follow the swearing-in ceremony from the Great Hall of Justice (space permitting) or from the Press Room, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

Media representatives must bring with them their personal ID and press card. They are asked to arrive at the Peace Palace gates between 9 and 9.30 a.m. Only duly accredited individuals with valid identification will be permitted to enter the Peace Palace grounds.

2. Parking at the Peace Palace, satellite vehicles

No parking is allowed in the Peace Palace grounds except for satellite vehicles. Media wishing to park satellite vehicles are requested to complete the appropriate fields in the online accreditation form. Televised media wishing to broadcast the swearing-in ceremony live should contact the Information Department as soon as possible, and by Wednesday 4 February 2015 at the latest, to make the necessary arrangements. Duly accredited satellite vehicles will be allowed to enter the Peace Palace grounds between 8.30 and 9 a.m. on the day of the sitting.

3. Press Room

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The sitting will be transmitted live, in English and French, to a press room equipped with Internet access (Wi-Fi, Ethernet). TV crews can connect to the Court’s PAL (HD and SD) and NTSC (SD) audio-visual system, and radio reporters to the audio system.

4. Video clips, photographs and biographical details

Video clips (SD/MPEG2 and HD/MPEG4) and photographs of the swearing-in ceremony will be made available to the media for editorial use on the same day, free of charge, in the “Multimedia” section of the website (download link: http://www.icj-cij.org/multimedia). The official photographs of the three new judges will be available to download in due course.

The biographical details of the new judges, as published by the United Nations Secretariat in document A/69/254-S/2014/522, are currently available as annexes to the Court’s press releases (Press Release2014/32 for Mr.Crawford and Mr.Gevorgian and Press Release2014/33 for Mr. Robinson). They will be published on the Court’s website once the judges have taken up office on 6 February 2015.

The biographical details and official photographs of the current Members of the Court are available to download online (under “The Court”/”Members of the Court”/”Current Members”).

5. Other media services

For further information, please visit the Court’s website (“Press Room”/“Media Services”) or contact the Information Department by telephone.

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter in June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York. The Court has a twofold role: first, to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States (its judgments have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned); and, second, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and agencies of the system. The Court is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. Independent of the United Nations Secretariat, it is assisted by a Registry, its own international secretariat, whose activities are both judicial and diplomatic, as well as administrative. The official languages of the Court are French and English. Also known as the “World Court”, it is the only court of a universal character with general jurisdiction.

The ICJ, a court open only to States for contentious proceedings, and to certain organs and institutions of the United Nations system for advisory proceedings, should not be confused with the other  mostly criminal  judicial institutions based in The Hague and adjacent areas, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY, an ad hoc court created by the Security Council), the International Criminal Court (ICC, the first permanent international criminal court, established by treaty, which does not belong to the United Nations system), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, an independent judicial body composed of Lebanese and international judges, which is not a United Nations tribunal and does not form part of the Lebanese judicial system), or the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA, an independent institution which assists in

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the establishment of arbitral tribunals and facilitates their work, in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1899).

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Information Department:

Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336) Mr. Boris Heim, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)
Ms Joanne Moore, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)

Sources: United Nations

By

Robert Williams

Editor in Chief

News24.7WorldPress