Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium)

OVERVIEW OF THE CASE

On 17 October 2000, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) filed an Application instituting proceedings against Belgium concerning a dispute over an international arrest warrant issued on 11 April 2000 by a Belgian examining judge against the acting Congolese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, seeking his detention and subsequent extradition to Belgium for alleged crimes constituting “grave violations of international humanitarian law”. The arrest warrant was transmitted to all States, including the DRC, which received it on 12 July 2000.

The DRC also filed a request for the indication of a provisional measure seeking “an order for the immediate discharge of the disputed arrest warrant”. Belgium, for its part, called for that request to be rejected and for the case to be removed from the List. In its Order made on 8 December 2000, the Court, rejecting Belgium’s request for the case to be removed from the List, stated that “the circumstances, as they [then] presented themselves to the Court, [were] not such as to require the exercise of its power, under Article 41 of the Statute, to indicate provisional measures”.

The Memorial of the DRC was filed within the prescribed time-limits. For its part, Belgium filed, within the prescribed time-limits, a Counter-Memorial addressing both issues of jurisdiction and admissibility and the merits.

In its submissions presented at the public hearings, the DRC requested the Court to adjudge and declare that Belgium had violated the rule of customary international law concerning the inviolability and immunity from criminal process of incumbent foreign ministers and that it should be required to recall and cancel that arrest warrant and provide reparation for the moral injury to the DRC. Belgium raised objections relating to jurisdiction, mootness and admissibility.

In its Judgment of 14 February 2002, the Court rejected the objections raised by Belgium and declared that it had jurisdiction to entertain the application of the DRC. With respect to the merits, the Court observed that, in the case, it was only questions of immunity from criminal jurisdiction and the inviolability of an incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs that it had to consider, on the basis, moreover, of customary international law.

The Court then observed that, in customary international law, the immunities accorded to Ministers for Foreign Affairs are not granted for their personal benefit, but to ensure the effective performance of their functions on behalf of their respective States. The Court held that the functions exercised by a Minister for Foreign Affairs were such that, throughout the duration of his or her office, a Minister for Foreign Affairs when abroad enjoyed full immunity from criminal jurisdiction and inviolability. Inasmuch as the purpose of that immunity and inviolability was to prevent another State from hindering the Minister in the performance of his or her duties, no distinction could be drawn between acts performed by the latter in an “official” capacity and those claimed to have been performed in a “private capacity” or, for that matter, between acts performed before assuming office as Minister for Foreign Affairs and acts committed during the period of office. The Court then observed that, contrary to Belgium’s arguments, it had been unable to deduce from its examination of State practice that there existed under customary international law any form of exception to the rule according immunity from criminal jurisdiction and inviolability to incumbent Ministers for Foreign Affairs when they were suspected of having committed war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The Court further observed that the rules governing the jurisdiction of national courts must be carefully distinguished from those governing jurisdictional immunities. The immunities under customary international law, including those of Ministers for Foreign Affairs, remained opposable before the courts of a foreign State, even where those courts exercised an extended criminal jurisdiction on the basis of various international conventions on the prevention and punishment of certain serious crimes.

However, the Court emphasized that the immunity from jurisdiction enjoyed by incumbent Ministers for Foreign Affairs did not mean that they enjoyed impunity in respect of any crimes they might have committed, irrespective of their gravity. While jurisdictional immunity was procedural in nature, criminal responsibility was a question of substantive law. Jurisdictional immunity might well bar prosecution for a certain period or for certain offences ; it could not exonerate the person to whom it applied from all criminal responsibility. The Court then spelled out the circumstances in which the immunities enjoyed under international law by an incumbent or former Minister for Foreign Affairs did not represent a bar to criminal prosecution.

After examining the terms of the arrest warrant of 11 April 2000, the Court noted that the issuance, as such, of the disputed arrest warrant represented an act by the Belgian judicial authorities intended to enable the arrest on Belgian territory of an incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It found that, given the nature and purpose of the warrant, its mere issuance constituted a violation of an obligation of Belgium towards the DRC, in that it had failed to respect the immunity which Mr. Yerodia enjoyed as incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Court also declared that the international circulation of the disputed arrest warrant from June 2000 by the Belgian authorities constituted a violation of an obligation of Belgium towards the DRC, in that it had failed to respect the immunity of the incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs. Finally, the Court considered that its findings constituted a form of satisfaction which would make good the moral injury complained of by the DRC. However, the Court also held that, in order to re-establish “the situation which would, in all probability have existed if [the illegal act] had not been committed”, Belgium must, by means of its own choosing, cancel the warrant in question and so inform the authorities to whom it had been circulated.


This overview is provided for information only and in no way involves the responsibility of the Court.

Institution of proceedings


Written proceedings

17 October 2000
Procedure(s):Provisional measures
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15 May 2001
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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28 September 2001
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Oral proceedings

Verbatim record 2000/32 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Monday 20 November 2000, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Provisional measures
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2000/33 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Tuesday 21 November 2000, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Provisional measures
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2000/34 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Wednesday 22 November 2000, at 10.40 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Provisional measures
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2000/35 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Thursday 23 November 2000, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, Vice-President Shi, Acting President, presiding
Procedure(s):Provisional measures
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2001/5 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Monday 15 October 2001, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume and Vice-President Shi presiding, successively
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2001/6 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Tuesday 16 October 2001, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2001/8 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Wednesday 17 October 2001, at 3 p.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2001/9 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Thursday 18 October 2001, at 3 p.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2001/10 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Friday 19 October 2001, at 9.30 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation
Verbatim record 2001/11 (bilingual version)
Public sitting held on Friday 19 October 2001, at 5 p.m., at the Peace Palace, President Guillaume presiding
Procedure(s):Questions of jurisdiction and/or admissibility
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Translation
(bilingual version) Translation

Other documents


Orders

Fixing of time-limits: Memorial and Counter-Memorial
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Extension of time-limits: Memorial and Counter-Memorial
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Extension of time-limits: Memorial and Counter-Memorial
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Rejection of Preliminary Objections; extension of time-limit: Counter-Memorial
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Judgments


Summaries of Judgments and Orders

Summary of the Order of 8 December 2000
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Summary of the Judgment of 14 February 2002
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Press releases

17 October 2000
The Democratic Republic of Congo institutes proceedings against Belgium concerning an international arrest warrant issued by a Belgian examining judge against the DRC's acting Minister for Foreign Affairs - The DRC seises the Court of a request for a provisional measure seeking to have the arrest warrant withdrawn forthwith
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20 October 2000
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Request for the indication of provisional measure - Court to hear the Parties at public hearings to open on Monday 20 November 2000
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5 December 2000
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Request for the indication of provisional measures - Court to announce its ruling on Friday 8 December 2000 at 10 a.m.
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8 December 2000
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - The Court rejects Belgium's request that the case be removed from the List and finds that the circumstances, as they now present themselves, are not such as to require the indication of provisional measures
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15 December 2000
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Fixing of time-limits for the filing of written pleadings
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16 March 2001
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Extension of the time-limits fixed for the filing of written pleadings
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17 April 2001
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - New extension of the time-limits fixed for the filing of written pleadings
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29 June 2001
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - The Court rejects a request by Belgium seeking to derogate from the agreed procedure in the case, extends the time-limit for the filing of Belgium's Counter-Memorial and fixes 15 October 2001 as the date for the opening of the hearings
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10 October 2001
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Programme of the public hearings which will open on Monday 15 October 2001
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Press release 2001/27 (French version only)
19 October 2001
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Conclusion of the public hearings - Court ready to consider its Judgment
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7 February 2002
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - Court to deliver its Judgment on Thursday 14 February 2002 at 3 p.m.
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13 February 2002
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - President of the Court to deliver a statement to the media immediately after the reading of the Judgment on Thursday 14 February 2002
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14 February 2002
Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium) - The Court finds that the issue and international circulation by Belgium of the arrest warrant of 11 April 2000 against Mr. Abdulaye Yerodia Ndombasi failed to respect the immunity from criminal jurisdiction and the inviolability which the incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Congo enjoyed under international law; and that Belgium must cancel the arrest warrant
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