Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - Opening of the public hearings

-ommuniqué No.5116.
[Unof icial )

The.f ollotuing infomation from the Registry of the International

Court of Justice has been corrmicated to the Press:

This rnorning the oral hearings were opened in the Adv5sory Case
relating to the reservation o the Convention for the prevention and
punishment of the crine of Genocide.

After M. Basdevant, the Presidsnt, had opened the hearing, IJIr.
E. Hambro, Registrar of the Coprt,read the Request for an Advjsory
Opinicn transmlit ed to the Court in virtue of the Rsrsclution
of the Gsneral Assembly of the United Nations dated
16th November, 1950

The questions put to the Court wera worded as follows:

"In so far as coneerns the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishmen tf the Crime of Genocide in the event of a State
ratifying or acceding to the Convention subject to a reservation
made either on ratification or on accession, or on signature
f ollowed by ratification:

Can thé reservtng State be regardcd as being a prtg to
1.
the Convention while still mintaining its reservation if
the reservaiion 5s objected to by one or more of the
parties tu the Gonvcntion but not by others?

II. If the mçwer to question 1 Is in the affirmative, whet is
the effect of the r~servatio n s between the reserving
State and:

(a) The parties which object to the resemation?
-.-
(b) Thosewhich ~ccept it?

III. What would be the legal effect as regards the answer to
question I if an objection ta a reservation is made:

(a) By a signatory which h3s not, pt ratified?

(b)I3-ya State entitled to sign or accede but which has
not yp_t done sa?"

As is known, the Resoliition was thc consequence of the reservations
made by nine States, sither to the signature or to the ratification of the
Convention, and the validity of these reserv~tions was disputed by other

States, signatories or non-signatorieo sf the Conventicn.

The Fresid~nk addedthat the necessarg notifications hd been
agdressedto tho Statesand iriternirtianal Orgwiisztions concerned, and they
had been informed of the time-limits appovlted for tha presvntation of
written staternents, The Court received written observztions frornthe
Orgariisstion of Arnerican ,Stetes and the International Labour Organlsntion,
alsofrom the Croverm~errts of tthe U.S.S.R., the Bashemite Kingdom of
Jordan, the Uni'ted States of ilmeriça, th2 United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Marthern Ireland, Israel, Poland, Czechoslov&i~, the Netherlands, the
PeopletsRepublicof Romania, the UkrainianS.S.R., the PeoplelsRepublic
of Bulgaria, the ~yelo-~ussizi S.S.R. and the Republieaf the Philippines.

The ,. , The United Kingdom of GreatSrltain 2nd Northwn Ireland hzving
announced its intention of prssentlng an oral staternent before the Court,
is represented for this purpose by the Attorney-General, Sir Hartley
Shzwcross, assisted by Mr. Fitzmzurice econd legl adviser of the
Foreign Oftice, To the same end, Francs and Israbl are repressnted by
K, Chzrles Rousseau, Professor of the Faculty of Law at Paris, Assistant
Legal Adviser ofthe Mirridry of Foreign Xfairs, ard MT. Shabtai Rosenne,
Legrd Adviser to the Ministry of Foreign kffairs, respectlvely.

The Secretar3~-Ganerd of $Be United Nations is represented before
the Court hy m. Ivan Kerno, Assistant Secretaxy-Generd in charge of the
Lsgal Depertmat, assistsd bg Mr. T~!attles,

The Fresident cslled upon Y!, Ivm Kerno.

Dr, Ivm Kerno fhst recalled the importance of the case now before
the Court, both frclm the paint of view of the application of the Convention
on Genocide and from thc point of vlew of Conventions and multilt aeral
treaties in general, Then he defined in trirn the functions.o the e
Secretary-Genera 2s the depo sitary of rnore khan slxty convention srepar ed
or revised by the United Nations and of more than fiity conventicins
previbusly deposited with the Secretarist cf .theLeegue of Nations, the
legal problems raised by these funct5ons 2nd the legal rüies whizh had
been followed in solving the difficulties whFc.2 hsd arisen to dete.

The m ?ilstaternents wlll .continue %O-marrow W,ednesday, April Uth,

The Hague, iipril 10t~,1951.