|
|
|
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
OAS Hosts 54th Lecture of the Americas “The Role of the International Court of Justice in World Affairs: Successes and Challenges”
Peter Tomka, President, International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Date: April 10, 2014
Place: Washington, DC
Credit: Maria Patricia Leiva/OAS
|
The President of the International Court of Justice, Peter Tomka, highlighted on Thursday the importance of the participation of several member states of the
Organization of American States (OAS) in the International Court of
Justice in The Hague and urged
all region’s countries to consider recognizing the jurisdiction of the
world court in the future, during his address at the 54th Lecture of the
Americas held at the headquarters of the hemispheric institution in
Washington, DC.
Judge Tomka focused his presentation on "The Role of the International
Court of Justice in World Affairs: Achievements and Challenges," with
special reference to cases involving OAS member countries and the Pact
of Bogotá. "It's no secret that American States
–particularly those from the Latin America- have been the most frequent
clients of the Court since its inception in 1945," said the magistrate
of Slovak origin.
President Tomka said “an unequivocal symbiosis -and compatibility-
exists between the underlying philosophy of the Pact of Bogotá and the
ideals enshrined in the UN Charter”. The Treaty on Pacific Settlement,
known as the
Pact of Bogotá was signed in 1948 in the Colombian capital, together with the document that gave birth to the hemispheric institution: the
OAS Charter. Like the OAS Charter
itself, the Pact of Bogotá obliges the High Contracting Parties to
settle controversies between the states of the Americas by peaceful
means and lists the procedures to be followed: mediation,
investigation and conciliation, good offices, arbitration, and, failing
that, recourse to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The Slovak lawyer said that since 1991 the International Court of
Justice has been more active than during the previous 46 years. He noted
that since its inception, the OAS member states have contributed a
total of 28 judges to the Court, six of whom reached
the Presidency of the body, while five others were appointed Vice
President.
In his speech, Judge Tomka talked about several cases of binational
conflict involving countries in the region that have been settled in the
International Court, or remain unresolved, such as the maritime and
territorial dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua;
the dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica over a section of the San
Juan River; the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay over the
establishment of a pulp mill on the Uruguay River; the maritime boundary
dispute between Chile and Peru; the dispute between
Ecuador and Colombia over chemicals dropped from airplanes to eradicate
illegal crops; and the claim of Bolivia against Chile for access to the
sea, among others.
Judge Tomka also referred to the case of Avena and 51 other Mexican
nationals who have been sentenced to death by courts in the United
States, without having had legal advice from the Consulate of their
country, as set out in the Vienna Convention. In this
regard, Judge Tomka recalled that the General Assembly of the OAS in
2007 referred to the Avena Judgment in a resolution concerning the human
rights of migrant workers and their families.
President Tomka highlighted the importance that the OAS member states,
particularly the Latin Americans, look to the International Court of
Justice for solutions to bilateral disputes.
For his part, the OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, who
delivered the welcoming remarks during the event, said that although the
International Court of Justice is a United Nations body and the
successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice
of the League of Nations, it has close ties with the Inter-American
system. “It was in our region, in 1907, that the first international
tribunal was established: the Central American Court of Justice. When it
ceased operating in 1917, thought was given to
establishing an Inter-American Court of Justice, and the so-called
"Peace Code" considered at the Seventh International Conference of
American States in 1933 detailed its rules, procedures, composition, and
powers. However, when it came to establishing the
International Court, it was decided not to move ahead with
implementation of the Inter-American Court, the reason being that the
countries of the Americas were at that time a majority in the universal
system,” he said.
The Secretary General of the OAS agreed with President Tomka about the
ties that bind the Pact of Bogotá with the International Court of
Justice and stressed the coincidence that underlies the fundamental
spirit of the two legal entities. “The birth of the
OAS in 1948 was also accompanied by the American Treaty on Pacific
Settlement (Pact of Bogotá). In a sense, that treaty brought the Court
in The Hague into the Inter-American system”, he said. “The list of
cases considered by the International Court to which
OAS member states are party and the constant participation in it of
highly distinguished American jurists, several of whom became its
President testify to our region's commitment to the peaceful resolution
of disputes,” he added.
Secretary General Insulza said that at present there are three judges on
the International Court of Justice from OAS member states: Antonio
Augusto Cançado Trindade, from Brazil; Joan Donoghue, from the United
States; and Bernardo Sepulveda, from Mexico, who
holds the Vice Presidency of the body.
Minutes before the start of the Lecture, Secretary General Insulza
received Judge Tomka in his office at the headquarters of the OAS.
Secretary General Insulza was accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Hugo de
Zela; the OAS Secretary for Legal Affairs, Jean Michel
Arrighi; the OAS Secretary for External Relations, Alfonso Quiñonez;
and OAS Director of the Department of International Affairs, Jorge
Sanin.
© Copyright 2014 by thebahamasweekly.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|