Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970) - First public hearings

,-'oWr!:>?!:f"'t. r:::;.ra,~~.!ô~~•.r.. .

f AR C_ H ~ V~ S l

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Peace Palace, The Hague· Tel. 39 23 44 · ~ables: lntercourt. TheHague
. ,

communique
unofficial

forimmedif:e'?te;s
8 February 1971

Request for an Advisory Opinion on the
Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence
of South Africain Namibb (South West Africn.) notwithstanding
Security Council Resolution 276 (1970)

First Public Sitting

The following information is communicated to the Press by the
Registry of the International Court of Justice:

On 8 February 1971, at the first public sitting in the proceedings
on the above request for an advisory opinion, the President of the Court
made the following statement:

The Court ha.s decided to examine first of a.11 the
observations which the Government of the Republic of Sputh Africa
has made in its written statement and in its letter of
14 January 1971 concerning the supposed disability of the Court
ta give the advisory opinion requested by the Security Council,
because of political pressure to which the Court, according
to the Government of the Republic of South Afric~, had been or
might be subjected.

The Court, after having deliberated, has unanimously
decided that it was not proper for it to entertain these
observations, bearing as they do on the very nature of the Court
as the principal judicia 1 organ of the. United Nations, an organ
which, in that capacity, acts only on the ba.sis of the law,
independently of all outside influence or interventions

whatsoever, in the exercise of the judicial function entrusted
toit alone by the Chnrter 2.nd its Statute.11 A court functioning
P,Sa court of law can act in no other we.y.
•
Next, Judge Gros, at the President's invitation, putto the
representative of the Secretary-Genera~ of the United Nations
six questions regarding the 1·1rtten statements submitted to the Court
on the Secretary-General 1s behalf.

rrirConstantin A. Stavropoulos, Under-Secretary-GeneI1al and Le gal
Counsel of the United Nations, then prcsented an
oral statement on the Secretary-General's behalf.

The further order in which representatives will address the
Court, at the hearing of 9 February and subsequent sittings, is as
follows: Finland, the Organization of African Unity, India,
the Netherlancis, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Republic of Viet-Nam,
South Africa and the United .'3tRtes of America.

The President invited the representatives of South Africa to
reserve for their oral statement the observations they had ',Üshed
to present regarding a proposal by their government that a plebiscite
be organized.

Corrigendum to Communiqué No. 71/4 of 5 February 1971.
Page 1, line 16:
For 1intention to submit written statements 11
re8cl
1intention to submit oral statements 11•