Uncorrected
Non corrigé
CR 2009/30
International Court Cour internationale
of Justice de Justice
THHEAGUE LAAYE
YEAR 2009
Public sitting
held on Tuesday 8 December 2009, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace,
President Owada, presiding,
on the Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence
by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo
(Request for advisory opinion submitted by the General Assembly of the United Nations)
_____________________
VERBATIM RECORD
____________________
ANNÉE 2009
Audience publique
tenue le mardi 8 décembre 2009, à 10 heures, au Palais de la Paix,
sous la présidence de M. Owada, président,
sur la Conformité au droit international de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance
des institutions provisoires d’administration autonome du Kosovo
(Demande d’avis consultatif soumise par l’Assemblée générale des Nations Unies)
____________________
COMPTE RENDU
____________________ - 2 -
Present: Presiewtada
Vice-Presidekta
Judges Shi
Koroma
Al-Khasawneh
Buergenthal
Keith
Sepúlveda-Amor
Bennouna
Skotnikov
Cançado Trindade
Yusuf
Greenwood
Registrar Couvreur
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ - 3 -
Présents : M. Owada,président
M. Tomka v,ice-président
Shi MM.
Koroma
Al-Khasawneh
Buergenthal
Keith
Sepúlveda-Amor
Bennouna
Skotnikov
Crinçade
Yusuf
Grejugesood,
Cgoefferr,
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ - 4 -
The Kingdom of Spain is represented by:
Professor Concepción Escobar Hernández, Legal Adviser, Head of the International Law
Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation,
as Head of Delegation and Advocate ;
H.E. Mr. Juan Pratt y Coll, Ambassador of Spain to the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
Ms Araceli Mangas Martín, Professor of International Law, University of Salamanca,
Mr.CarlosJiménez Piernas, Professor of International Law, University of Alcalá de
Henares,
Ms Paz Andrés Saénz de Santa María, Professor of International Law, University of Oviedo,
Mr. Jorge Cardona Llorens, Professor of International Law, University of Valencia,
as Counsel.
The United States of America is represented by:
Mr. Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State,
as Head of Delegation and Advocate;
H.E.MadamFayHartogLevin, Ambassador of the United States of America to the
Kingdom of the Netherlands;
Mr. Todd F. Buchwald, Assistant Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs,
U.S. Department of State,
Mr. Peter Olson, Assistant Legal Adviser for European Affairs, U.S. Department of State,
Mr. John D. Daley, Attorney-Adviser, U.S. Department of State,
Ms Kristen Eichensehr, Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State,
Ms Karen K. Johnson, Deputy Legal Counsellor, U.S.Embassy in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands,
Mr. John J. Kim, Legal Counsellor, U.S. Embassy in the Kingdom of the Netherlands,
Ms Emily Kimball, Attorney-Adviser, U.S. Department of State,
_______________________
For the complete list of delegations of all participants, please refer to CR 2009/29. - 5 -
Le Royaume d’Espagne est représenté par :
Mme Concepción Escobar Hernández, conseiller juridique et chef au département du droit
international du ministère des affaires étrangères et de la coopération,
comme chef de délégation et avocat ;
S. Exc. M. Juan Prat y Coll, ambassadeur du Royaume d’Espagne auprès du Royaume des
Pays-Bas ;
Mme Araceli Mangas Martín, professeur de droit international à l’Université de Salamanque,
M.CarlosJiménez Piernas, professeur de droi t international à l’Université d’Alcalá de
Henares,
MmePazAndrésSaénz de SantaMaría, professeur de droit international à l’Université
d’Oviedo,
M. Jorge Cardona Llorens, professeur de droit international à l’Université de Valence,
comme conseils .
Les Etats-Unis d’Amérique sont représentés par :
M. Harold Hongju Koh, conseiller juridique du département d’Etat des Etats-Unis
d’Amérique,
comme chef de délégation et avocat ;
S.Exc.MmeFay Hartog Levin, ambassadeur des Etats-Unis d’Amérique auprès du
Royaume des Pays-Bas ;
M.Todd F. Buchwald, conseiller juridique adjoint chargé des questions concernant les
Nations Unies au département d’Etat des Etats-Unis d’Amérique,
MP . etOlson, conseiller juridique adjoint chargé des questions européennes au
département d’Etat des Etats-Unis d’Amérique,
M. John D. Daley, avocat-conseiller au département d’Etat des Etats-Unis d’Amérique,
MmeKristen Eichensehr, assistante spéciale du conseiller juridique au département d’Etat
des Etats-Unis d’Amérique,
Mme Karen K. Johnson, conseiller juridique adjoint à l’ambas sade des Etats-Unis
d’Amérique au Royaume des Pays-Bas,
M. John J. Kim, conseiller juridique à l’amba ssade des Etats-Unis d’Amérique au Royaume
des Pays-Bas,
Mme Emily Kimball, avocat-conseiller au département d’Etat des Etats-Unis d’Amérique,
_______________________
Pour consulter la liste complète de toutes les délégations, prière de se reporter au CR 2009/29. - 6 -
Ms Anna M. Mansfield, Deputy Legal Adviser, U.S. Mission to the United Nations and other
International Organizations, Geneva,
Mr. Phillip M. Spector, Senior Adviser to the Legal Adviser, U.S. Depart
ment of State,
Mr. Jeremy M. Weinberg, Attorney-Adviser, U.S. Department of State,
as Counsel .
The Russian Federation is represented by:
H.E. Mr. Kirill Gevorgian, Ambassador, Head of the Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs,
as Head of Delegation ;
Mr. Maxim Musikhin, First Secretary, Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Kingdom of
the Netherlands;
Mr. Ivan Volodin, Acting Head of Section, Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Mr. Konstantin Bersenev, First Secretary, Fourth European Department, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs;
Ms Anastasia Tezikova, Third Secretary, Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Ms Ksenia Gal, Assistant attaché, Legal Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Republic of Finland is represented by:
Ms Päivi Kaukoranta, Director General, Legal Service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Professor Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki;
H.E. Mr. Klaus Korhonen, Ambassador of Finland to the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
Mr.KaiSauer, Director, Unit for U.N. and General Global Affairs, Political Department,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
MsSariMäkelä, Legal Counsellor, Unit for Public International Law, Legal Service,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
MsMiiaAro-Sanchez, First Secretary, Embassy of Finland in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. - 7 -
Mme AnnaMM. ansfield, conseiller juridique adjoint à la mission des Etats-Unis
d’Amérique auprès de l’Organisation des Nati ons Unies et dans d’autres organisations
internationales à Genève,
M. Phillip M. Spector, conseiller principal du conseiller juridique du département d’Etat des
Etats-Unis d’Amérique,
MJ.eremMyW. einberg, avocat-conseiller au département d’Etat des Etats-Unis
d’Amérique,
comme conseils .
La Fédération de Russie est représentée par :
S. Exc. M. Kirill Gevorgian, ambassadeur, chef du département des affaires juridiques du
ministère des affaires étrangères,
comme chef de délégation ;
M.Maxim Musikhin, premier secrétaire à l’ambassade de la Fédération de Russie au
Royaume des Pays-Bas ;
MmeIvan Volodin, chef de section en exerci ce au département juridique du ministère des
affaires étrangères ;
e
M.Konstantin Bersenev, premier secrétaire au 4 département européen du ministère des
affaires étrangères ;
MmeAnastasia Tezikova, troisième secrétaire au département juridique du ministère des
affaires étrangères ;
MmeKseniaGal, attachée adjointe au départ ement juridique du ministère des affaires
étrangères.
La République de Finlande est représentée par :
MmePäivi Kaukoranta, directrice générale du service des affaires juridiques du ministère
des affaires étrangères ;
M. Martti Koskenniemi, professeur à l’Université d’Helsinki ;
S. Exc. M. Klaus Korhonen, ambassadeur de Finlande auprès du Royaume des Pays-Bas ;
M. Kai Sauer, directeur de l’unité des Nations Unies et des affaires internationales générales
au département des affaires politiques du ministère des affaires étrangères ;
MmeSariMäkelä, conseiller juridique à l’unité de droit international public au service des
affaires juridiques du ministère des affaires étrangères ;
MmeMiia Aro-Sanchez, premier secrétaire à l’ambassade de Finlande au Royaume des
Pays-Bas. - 8 -
The PRESIDENT: Please be seated. The sitti ng is open. I note that Judge Abraham, for
reasons explained to me, is unable to attend the oral proceedings today. The Court meets this
morning to hear the following participants on the questions submitted to the Court:
Spain, the United States of America, the Russia n Federation and Finland. Each delegation
is given 45minutes to make its oral statement. I shall now give the floor to
Professor Concepción Escobar Hernández.
Mme ESCOBAR HERNÁNDEZ :
1. Monsieur le président, Messieurs les juges, c’est pour moi un privilège et un grand
honneur de m’adresser aujourd’hui à la Cour in ternationale de Justice, en représentation du
Royaume d’Espagne, dans une procédure consulta tive aussi importante qui touche les principes
fondamentaux du droit international contemporain.
2. L’Espagne est très fortement attachée au respect du droit comme ligne directrice de sa
politique. Par conséquent, l’Espagne n’a aucun doute sur le rôle central que le droit doit jouer dans
les relations internationales et dans ce cadre, mon pays a toujours eu une pleine confiance en cette
Cour en sa qualité d’organe judiciaire principal d es Nations Unies qui a la responsabilité de dire le
droit et de se développer comme l’organe qui assure , en dernière instance, la prééminence du droit
sur le plan international.
3. C’est à partir de cette perspective que le Gouvernement de l’Espagne a décidé de
participer à cette procédure, en déposant un exposé écrit le 14 avril et des observations écrites le
17juillet. Et c’est dans le même esprit de pl eine coopération avec la Cour que nous prenons
aujourd’hui la parole aux audiences publiques, pour vous présenter un exposé oral qui est la suite
des arguments et commentaires que mon pays a déjà présentés par écrit, et qui ne peut être compris
qu’en relation avec ceux-là.
4. C’est à cette occasion, que je ferai référence à un groupe de sujets choisis qui, à notre avis,
présentent une importance particulière dans le cadre de cette procédure consultative :
premièrement, l’exercice de sa compétence par la Cour; deuxièmement, la portée de la question
posée par l’Assemblée générale ; troisièmement, la résolution 1244 (1999) comme la réponse de la
communauté internationale à la crise du Kosovo ; et quatrièmement, la conformité au droit - 9 -
international de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance, à la lumière du régime international pour
le Kosovo établi par le Conseil de sécurité.
Après l’analyse de ces quatre sujets, je me référerai aussi à trois autres questions qui ont été
avancées par certains participants à la procédure : premièrement, la relati on parmi la déclaration
unilatérale d’indépendance, le pr incipe de l’autodétermination des peuples et le soi-disant concept
de la «sécession comme remède»; deuxièmement, la valeur du silence du Conseil de sécurité et
d’autres organes des Nations Unies ; et troisièmement, la prétendue neutralité du droit international
à l’égard de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance.
I.L A COMPÉTENCE DE LA C OUR
5. Monsieur le président, la participation de l’Espagne à la présente procédure se fait sur la
base de la reconnaissance de la compétence qui appartient à la Cour dans le cas d’espèce.
6. En effet, comme la Cour l’a dit elle-mêm e à plusieurs reprises, la Cour peut «donner un
avis consultatif sur toute question juridique, abstraite ou non» ( Conséquences juridiques de
l’édification d’un mur dans le territoire palestin ien occupé, avis consultatif du 9juillet2004 ,
C.I.J. Recueil 2004, p.154, par.40). En ce faisant, la Cour exerce sa fonction de «déterminer les
principes et règles existants, les interpréter et les appliquer…apportant ainsi à la question posée
une réponse fondée en droit» (Licéité de la menace ou de l’em ploi d’armes nucléaires, avis
consultatif, C.I.J. Recueil 1996 (I), p. 134, par. 13).
7. A cet égard, je voudrais souligner le fait que nous n’avons aucun doute sur la nature
juridique de la question qui a été posée par l’ Assemblée générale. Il s’agit d’une question
étroitement liée à l’interprétation de normes et principes fondamentaux, ainsi qu’aux normes, non
moins importantes dans le cas de figure, qui régissen t le régime international pour le Kosovo établi
par le Conseil de sécurité, y compris le processus visant à déterminer leur statut futur. La
dimension juridique de ces éléments que je viens de mentionner ne peut être sous-estimée, et elle
mérite que l’organe judiciaire principal des Nations Unies se prononce à son égard.
8. Bien que les éléments politiques sous-jacents à la question posée par l’Assemblée générale
soient évidents, nous ne pouvons pourtant pas oublie r que la Cour même a souligné que ceci «est,
par la nature des choses, le cas de bon nombre de questions qui viennent à se poser dans la vie - 10 -
internationale» (Licéité de l’utilisation des armes nucléaires par un Etat dans un conflit armé, avis
consultatif, C.I.J. Recueil 1996 (I), p.73, par.16), mais cela «ne suffit pas à la priver de son
caractère de «question juridique»» (ibid.).
9. En outre, comme la Cour l’a également proclamé expressément, l’exercice de la
compétence consultative «constitue [sa] particip ation à l’action de l’Organisation» et par
conséquent, «en principe, elle ne devrait pas être refusée» ( Conséquences juridiques de
l’édification d’un mur dans le territoire palestin ien occupé, avis consultatif du 9juillet2004 ,
C.I.J. Recueil 2004, p.156, par.44) de donner un avis cons ultatif. De ce point de vue, nous ne
croyons pas qu’il soit possible d’identifier dans le cas d’espèce, des «raisons décisives» qui
pourraient justifier que la Cour renonce à l’exerci ce de cette compétence, en avançant des critères
d’opportunité ou même l’inutilité éventuelle de l’avis qu’elle puisse émettre. Bien au contraire, les
sujets qui sont à la base de la question de l’ Assemblée générale font référence au noyau des
principes du droit international ainsi qu’au systèm e de maintien de la paix et de la sécurité
internationales établi par la Charte des Nations Unies.
10. En conclusion, l’Espagne n’a aucun doute sur le fait que la Cour internationale de Justice
a toute compétence pour donner un avis consultatif sur la question qui lui a été posée. Et, par
conséquent, nous faisons confiance au fait que la Cour accomplir a sa fonction essentielle de dire le
droit en contribuant ainsi à assurer le respect de l’état de droit sur le plan international.
II.L A PORTÉE DE LA QUESTION : LE SENS DE LA DÉCLARATION
UNILATÉRALE D ’INDÉPENDANCE
11. En deuxième lieu, j’aimerais me penche r sur la portée de la question qui vous a été
adressée par l’Assemblée générale. Un sujet central pour la présente procédure consultative, car il
peut conditionner la portée de l’avis que la Cour donnera à son tour.
12. L’Assemblée générale a prié la Cour de dire si «la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance
des institutions provisoires d’administration au tonome du Kosovo est…conforme au droit
1
international» .
1
A/RES/63/3. - 11 -
13. Sur la base de cette question, certains participants à la procédure ont avancé leur
interprétation de la question dans le sens que la Cour ne devra y répondre qu’en tenant compte de la
déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance en soi-même considérée.
14. L’Espagne partage une telle interprétation pour autant que cette déclaration est le fait qui
a motivé la requête de l’Assemblée générale et qui détermine la date critique dont la Cour doit tenir
compte. Ni les actes adoptés par les institutions pr ovisoires du Kosovo après la déclaration, ni les
actes de reconnaissance adoptés par des Etats tiers, ni aucun autre acte produit par une organisation
internationale quelconque à partir et sur la base de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance, n’ont,
par conséquent, de valeur pour répondre à la question qui a été formulée par l’Assemblée générale.
15. Cela dit, si bien l’Espagne est d’accord av ec la considération de la déclaration comme le
centre de la requête, nous ne pouvons pas partager une interprétation purement formelle de la
question posée par l’Assemblée générale car cette interprétation conduit à extraire la déclaration de
son contexte d’origine.
16. Parce que face à cette question, est-il possible d’y répondre en tenant compte tout
simplement de la déclaration uni latérale d’indépendance adoptée par les institutions provisoires du
Kosovo comme s’il s’agissait d’un fait isolé ? Est-il possible d’y répondre sans tenir compte du but
poursuivi par les auteurs de la déclaration et des e ffets qu’ils prétendent en déduire? Et enfin,
est-il possible d’y répondre sans tenir compte du fait que la déclaration a été adoptée dans le cadre
d’une situation bien précise et dans un contexte donné ?
17. D’après l’Espagne, à toutes ces questi ons correspond une réponse négative. Nous
considérons que la Cour ne sera en mesure de répondre de façon adéquate à la question posée par
l’Assemblée générale que si elle tient compte de deux éléments: prem ièrement, le fait que
l’objectif à atteindre par la déclaration unila térale d’indépendance es t de créer un nouvel Etat
séparé de la Serbie ; et deuxièmement, le fait que cette déclaration a été adoptée au détriment d’un
régime international pour le Kosovo établi par le Conseil de sécurité et régi par des normes et
principes de droit international ainsi que par la Charte des Nations Unies.
18. Autrement dit, la réponse sur la conform ité au droit international de la déclaration
unilatérale d’indépendance doit se construire su r la base de toutes les normes applicables au
Kosovo à la date critique, en particulier la Charte des Nations Unies et la résolution 1244 (1999) du - 12 -
Conseil de sécurité ; ainsi que des principes fondame ntaux du droit international. Car, on ne peut
pas l’oublier, la question du Kosovo est soumise, comme toute autre situation aussi complexe et
aussi particulière soit-elle, aux principes fondamentaux qui constituent la base du système juridique
international.
III.L A RÉSOLUTION 1244 (1999) DU CONSEIL DE SÉCURITÉ :UNE RÉPONSE ÉQUILIBRÉE
À LA CRISE DU KOSOVO
19. Sans doute, un de ces principes fondamentaux est celui qui tient à la souveraineté et à
l’intégrité territoriale. Nonobstant, il n’est pas nécessaire à cette occasion de nous prononcer, d’un
point de vue général, sur la portée et la signi fication dudit principe. Son analyse, ainsi que
l’analyse de la pratique du Conseil de sécurité à son égard, a déjà été fait e par l’Espagne dans son
2
exposé écrit, auquel nous faisons référence .
20. Mais permettez-moi mainte nant, Monsieur le président, de m’occuper de l’applicabilité
de ce principe fondamental au cas du Kosovo sous un e approche différente, à savoir : celle-ci de la
signification de la résolution1244(1999) en ta nt que réponse de la communauté internationale
organisée face à la crise du Kosovo.
21. En effet, aucun des Etats qui participent à la procédure consultative, ni même les
représentants des auteurs de la déclaration unila térale d’indépendance, n’ont opposé d’argument
contre la validité ou l’applicabilité de ladite résolution au moment présent. Cependant, les
conclusions que chacun des participants à la procédure ont tirées de cette reconnaissance de la
validité de la résolution 1244 (1999) sont fort différentes. C’est pour cette raison qu’il nous semble
nécessaire de faire brièvement référence à l’origine et à la signification de la résolution.
22. Suite à la suspension par le président Miloševi ć du statut d’autonomie de la province du
Kosovo en 1989, une grave crise a éclaté sur ce te rritoire. Les faits qui s’ensuivirent ont engendré
une spirale de confrontation et de violence qui a débouché sur un conflit armé pouvant être qualifié
de menace contre la paix et la sécurité internati onales et au sein duquel se sont produites de graves
violations du droit international, en particulier des droits de l’homme, du droit international
humanitaire et des droits des minorités. Face à ce tte grave situation, la réponse du Conseil de
2
Exposé écrit du Royaume d’Espagne, avril 2009, p. 15-26, par. 20-34. - 13 -
sécurité a été l’adoption de la résolution1244 (1 999). Une résolution qui est approuvée par le
Conseil de sécurité dans le cadre du chapitreVII de la Charte et «ayant à l’esprit les buts et
principes consacrés par la Charte des Nati onUs nies, ainsi que [sa] responsabilité
3
principale…pour le maintien de la paix et de la sécurité internationales» . Par conséquent, la
résolution 1244 (1999) a comme résultat de situer le Conseil de sécurité au centre du processus de
décision et de surveillance à l’égard du Kosovo.
23. Il s’agit, en outre, d’une résolution dans laquelle le Conseil de sécurité a ébauché un sage
équilibre entre tous les intérêts en présence. En effet, face à une grave situation où on peut
identifier des circonstances extrêmes qui portent préjudice à des principes fondamentaux du droit
international et à la protection même de l’in dividu, le Conseil de sécurité n’a pas opté pour
l’indépendance du Kosovo, et n’a pas déclaré non pl us que la République fédérale de Yougoslavie
ait perdu, de par ces faits, la souveraineté sur ledit territoire. Bien au contraire, face à cette
situation de crise extrême le Conseil de sécurité s’est limité à établir un régime international
intérimaire pour le Kosovo, bien équilibré, qui tie nt compte autant du principe de souveraineté et
de l’intégrité territoriale que du principe de l’autodétermination des peuples.
24. Un régime international, j’aimerais le rappeler, qui est intégré par deux éléments
étroitement liés :
i) en premier lieu, l’établissement d’une «administration intérimaire dans le cadre de laquelle
la population du Kosovo pourra jouir d’une autonomie substantielle au sein de la
République fédérale de Yougoslavie» 4;
ii) en deuxième lieu, la mise en Œuvre d’un «p rocessus politique visant à déterminer le statut
futur du Kosovo» 5.
25. Ces deux éléments (l’administration intérimaire et le processus politique) constituent les
axes du régime international pour le Kosovo et ils doivent être interprétés ensemble, sur une base
contextuelle. Et, surtout, ils doivent être interpré tés à la lumière du but de la décision du Conseil
de sécurité, à savoir : le régime international in térimaire pour le Kosovo pr évoit une solution pour
3Résolution 1244 (1999), préambule (par. 1).
4
Résolution 1244 (1999), par. 10.
5Résolution 1244 (1999), par. 11 e). - 14 -
la crise de ce territoire, y compris la détermination du statut futur du Kosovo ; une solution qui doit
se conformer aux normes de droit international applicables et aux procédures décidées par le
Conseil de sécurité.
26. Les deux éléments que je viens de mentionner constituent une unité indissociable et, par
conséquent, de l’avis de l’Espagne, il n’est pas possible de maintenir la validité et l’applicabilité de
la résolution1244 (1999), en tenant compte tout simplement d’un seul de ces éléments. La
résolution 1244 (1999) étant en vigueur, il faut conc lure que le régime d’administration intérimaire
continue à être applicable et que le processus politique pour la détermination du statut futur du
Kosovo est toujours ouvert. Du moins, bien entendu, tant que le Conseil de sécurité n’en décidera
pas autrement.
IV. LA RESOLUTION 1244 (1999) ET LE REGIME INTERNATIONAL POUR LE K OSOVO COMME
PARAMETRES DE LA CONFORMITE AU DROIT INTERNATIONAL DE LA DECLARATION
UNILATERALE D ’INDEPENDANCE
27. Compte tenu du rôle central que la réso lution1244 (1999) joue à l’égard du Kosovo, il
est évident que le régime international qui y estétabli doit être pris en considération pour toute
réponse à donner à l’égard de la conformité au droit in ternational de la déclaration. Autrement dit,
la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance ne peut être conforme au droit international que si elle est
conforme aux règles qui régissent soit le régime d’administration intérimaire soit le processus
politique pour la détermination du statut futur du Kosovo.
a) L’incompatibilité de la déclaration un ilatérale d’indépendance avec le régime
d’administration internationale intérimaire
28. En premier lieu, en nous situant dans le domaine du régime d’administration intérimaire,
on ne peut pas nier que le Conseil de sécurité a très fortement limité les compétences que la Serbie
peut exercer sur le Kosovo. Toutefois cette limitation ne peut pas se traduire par la suppression,
voire la méconnaissance, du principe de souveraineté et d’intégrité territorial de la République
fédérale de Yougoslavie. Au contraire, comme l’Espagne l’a souligné da ns son exposé écrit, la
reconnaissance de la souveraineté et de l’intégrité territoriale de la Serbie fait partie de la
résolution1244 (1999), en constituant un des axes de l’équilibre d’intérêts que le Conseil de - 15 -
sécurité a garanti par ladite résolution 6. Cette interprétation a été confirmée dans les présentes
audiences publiques par les exposés de l’Argentine, du Brésil et de la Chine, trois Etats qui ont
participé à la négociation et à l’adoption de la résolution 1244 (1999) 7.
29. En outre, bien que la résolution1244 (1999) ait également établi un régime
d’auto-administration exercé par les institutions provisoires du Kosovo, ledit régime ne porte pas
préjudice à la souveraineté ni à l’intégrité territoriale de la Serbie. Ainsi, pour bien comprendre la
relation entre ces deux éléments, il faut tenir compte que :
i)comme il est dit expressément dans la résolution1244 (1999), l’auto-administration
s’exerce «au sein» de la République fédérale de Yougoslavie 8 ;
ii)le régime d’auto-administration est un ré gime internationalisé, défini et soumis aux
normes qui ont une nature nettement intern ationale, parmi lesquelles non seulement la
Charte des Nations Unies et la résolution 1244 (1999), mais aussi le cadre constitutionnel
pour le Kosovo (approuvé par un règlement MINUK) et tous les autres actes adoptés à
partir de la résolution du Conseil de sécurité ;
iii) l’auto-administration est soumise à la su rveillance des organes internationaux créés par
application de la résolution 1244 (1999) ; et
iv)les institutions d’auto-administration du Kosovo, qui ont une nature provisoire, ont
elles-mêmes été créées sur la base de la résolution1244 (1999) dont elles tirent leur
légitimité. Elles répondent, par conséquent, à la nature du pouvoir constitué et non du
pouvoir constituant.
30. En plus, il faut remarquer que les ins titutions provisoires d’administration autonome du
Kosovo exercent leurs compétences avec la portée et les limites prévues dans le régime
international auquel elles doivent se soumettre. Par conséquent, les institutions provisoires
d’administration autonome, bien qu’elles soient qualifiées comme des «acteurs non étatiques», sont
obligées par tous les principes fondamentaux et par les normes internationales qui font partie de ce
régime.
6 Exposé écrit du Royaume d’Espagne, avril 2009, p. 27-28, par. 36-37.
7
CR 2009/26, p. 40, par. 12 (Argentine) ; CR 2009/28, p. 17, par. 11 (Brésil) ; CR 2009/29, p. 29, par. 3 (Chine).
8 Résolution 1244 (1999), par. 10. - 16 -
31. En conséquence, d’après cette première perspective, une déclaration unilatérale
d’indépendance, dont le but est de créer un nouvel Etat à partir de la sécession de la Serbie, ne
serait pas conforme au droit international dans la mesure où elle s’oppose au principe de
souveraineté et d’intégrité territoriale proclamé et garanti par la résolution 1244 (1999).
32. Il convient d’ajouter que la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance est, en outre, un acte
ultra vires, incompatible avec le régime d’administra tion internationale provisoire du Kosovo, en
tant qu’il va bien au-delà du statut et des compétences octroyées aux institutions provisoires
d’auto-administration du Kosovo selon la résolution 1244 (1999).
b) L’incompatibilité de la déclaration unilatéra le d’indépendance avec le processus politique
pour la détermination du statut futur du Kosovo
33. Sur un autre plan, il faut analyser aussi la conformité au droit international de la
déclaration à la lumière du processus politique pou r la détermination du statut futur du Kosovo.
Dans cette perspective, il faut tenir compte des éléments qui caractérisent le processus, à savoir :
i) il a pour finalité de mettre fin à la cri se du Kosovo, celle-ci étant entendue en termes
compréhensifs;
ii)il doit être mis en Œuvre à l’aide de «négociations entre les parties en vue d’un
règlement» 9. Selon le sens ordinaire du terme, un rè glement ne peut pas se faire par le
seul vŒux d’une des parties mais moyennant un accord ; et
iii) la solution finale à attendre n’est ni prédéterminée, ni soumise à une quelconque limite. A
l’exception de la limite découlant du fait que toute solution devra être atteinte moyennant
un accord des parties intéressées, avec l’accompagnement de la communauté
internationale. Une limite que, comme nous l’avons déjà souligné dans notre exposé écrit,
est sous-jacente à la résolution 1244 (1999) et à l’ensemble du système construit à partir de
celle-ci, en étant présente de manière continue dans la pratique de mise en Œuvre de la
10
résolution .
34. Par conséquent, il faut conclure que, dans cette deuxième perspective, la déclaration
unilatérale d’indépendance est aussi en contradiction avec le droit international applicable, dans la
9
Résolution 1244 (1999), annexe 2, par. 8.
10Exposé écrit du Royaume d’Espagne, avril 2009, p. 58-60, par. 76-79. - 17 -
mesure où elle implique une infraction de la pr océdure établie par le Conseil de sécurité pour
aboutir à un arrangement communément accepté par les parties sur le statut futur du Kosovo.
35. Encore faut-il souligner une autre raison de poids qui explique la non-conformité de la
déclaration au droit international: par le biais de cette déclaration unila térale une des parties
prétend s’attribuer la compétence du Conseil de sécurité de décider en dernière instance sur la
procédure applicable au règlement de la questi on du Kosovo. Un comportement qui, sans aucun
doute, va à l’encontre des pouvoirs du Conseil de sécurité et de sa qualité d’organe principal des
Nations Unies dans le domaine du maintien de la paix et de la sécurité internationales.
36. Après la présentation de nos arguments touc hant le noyau de la requête, je me tourne
maintenant, Monsieur le président, vers trois autr es sujets qui nous semblent présenter un intérêt
spécial à l’égard de la présente procédure.
V. L A DECLARATION UNILATERALE D ’INDEPENDANCE , LE PRINCIPE DE
L’AUTODETERMINATION DES PEUPLES ET LE SOI DISANT CONCEPT
DE LA «SECESSION COMME REMEDE »
37. Tout au long de cette procédure consulta tive ont été avancés des arguments relatifs à la
relation existante entre la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance, le principe de l’autodétermination
des peuples et le concept de la soi-disant «sécession comme remède».
38. Il n’est pas dans notre intention bien sûr de nier le rôle central que le droit à
l’autodétermination joue au sein du système juridi que international. Ceci dit, on ne peut pas
oublier non plus que ledit principe ne peut pas être compris en des termes absolus. Bien au
contraire, rappelons que l’aut odétermination des peuples comporte une double dimension, interne
et extérieure. De plus, toute interprétation d’un principe fondamental de droit international doit
suivre clairement des critères sy stématiques, comme le témoigne nt la résolution2625(XXV) de
l’Assemblée générale 11et la jurisprudence émanant de la Cour internationale de Justice .12
11Disposition générale 2, par. 1 de la résolution 2625 (XXV).
12Sahara occidental, avis consultatif, C.I.J. Recueil 1975, p. 33, par. 58 ; Activités militaires et paramilitaires au
Nicaragua et contre celui-ci (Nicaragua c.Etats-Unis d’Amérique), fond,C.I.J. Recueil 1986, par.202 et suiv.,
212 et suiv. et 242;Conséquences juridiques de l'édification d'ur dans le territoire pale stinien occupé, avis
consultatif, C.I.J. Recueil 2004, p. 171, par. 88-89 ; Activités armées sur itoire du Congo (République
démocratique du Congo c. Ouganda), arrêt, C.I.J. Recueil 2005, p. 168, par. 162-165. - 18 -
39. A cet égard, j’aimerais rappeler ce que j’ai déjà dit auparavant : la résolution 1244 (1999)
établit un équilibre entre les deux principes fondamentaux applicables. Et le régime
d’auto-administration du Kosovo constitue une form e d’exercice du droit à l’autodétermination,
cette fois-ci de nature interne et dans le cadre du régime international intérimaire établi par le
Conseil de sécurité.
40. Ceci étant dit, nous ne voulons pas ignorer que, certains participants à la procédure ont
cependant avancé la possibilité de l’exercice du droit à l’autodétermination en sa dimension
extérieure, en appuyant leurs arguments sur le concept de «sécession comme remède». Ce faisant,
ils ont identifié la grave situation de violations des droits de l’homme, des droits des minorités et du
droit international humanitaire, comme étant la cause susceptible de justifier une déclaration
d’indépendance.
41. Monsieur le président, Messieurs les jug es, l’Espagne reconnaît le rôle central que la
protection de l’individu doit jouer da ns les relations internationales et dans le droit international de
nos jours. Dans cette perspective, nous n’avons aucun doute sur le fait que le plein respect des
droits de d’homme doit être pris en considérati on pour l’interprétation des normes et principes du
droit international, même dans le domaine du maintie n de la paix et de la sécurité internationales.
Mais ceci étant dit, nous considérons que cet élém ent (le respect des droits de l’homme) a déjà été
pris en considération par le Conseil de sécurité au moment de l’adoption de la résolution1244
(1999) et de l’établissement du régime international intérimaire pour le Kosovo. Et que cet élément
a aussi été pris en considération dans le cadre du régime d’auto-administration du Kosovo, dont
l’un des objectifs est l’établissement d’un système de reconnaissance et de protection des droits de
l’homme, y compris les droits des minorités.
42. Compte tenu de ce que je viens de dire , nous ne considérons pas qu’il soit nécessaire de
revenir à nouveau sur ce sujet. La question des gr aves violations des droits de l’homme a déjà été
réglée en1999. Et il n’est pas possible d’id entifier de nouveaux événements qui se seraient
produits à la veille de l’adoption de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance et qui pourraient être
à la base de l’exercice d’un soi-disant «droit à la sécession comme remède».
43. En conclusion, dans l’hypothèse où la sécession remède serait admissible dans le droit
international contemporain, elle ne serait pas a pplicable au cas de Kosovo. En outre, d’après - 19 -
l’Espagne, il n’est pas même possible d’identifier des normes internationales en vigueur qui
autorisent un tel droit. Par contre, comme le Com ité pour l’élimination de la discrimination raciale
l’a dit par sa recommandation généraleXXI, bien que «les groupes ou minorités ethniques ou
religieuses mentionnent fréquemment le droit à l’autodétermination comme fondement de la
revendication d’un droit à la sécession», «le droit international ne reconnaît pas de droit général des
peuples de déclarer unilatéralement faire sécession par rapport à un Etat» 13.
44. En tout cas, pour finir sur ce point, permettez-moi de citer ici l’affirmation contenue dans
le rapport de la mission d’enquête internationale indépendante sur le conflit en Géorgie, créée par
le Conseil de l’Union européenne en2008: «International law does not recognise a right to
unilaterally create a new state based on the prin ciple of self-determination outside the colonial
context and apartheid. An extraordinary acceptance to secede under extreme conditions such as
14
genocide has so far not found general acceptance.» Nous partageons pleinement cette
conclusion.
VI. LE SILENCE DU C ONSEIL DE SÉCURITÉ ET D ’AUTRES ORGANES DES N ATIONS U NIES
45. Je voudrais me référer maintenant au soi-disant silence du Conseil de sécurité (et même
d’autres organes des NationsUnies) à l’égard de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance des
institutions provisoires d’auto-administration du Kosovo.
46. Cet argument a été avancé, directement ou indirectement, par certains participants à la
procédure pour conclure soit à la validité de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance soit à la
clôture ou l’interruption du processus pour la déte rmination du statut du Kosovo. Mais, d’après
l’Espagne cet argument n’est pas acceptable d’un point de vue juridique.
15
47. En effet, comme nous l’avions déjà annoncé dans nos observations écrites , le silence du
Conseil de sécurité ne peut pas être vu co mme une sorte d’acceptation de la déclaration
d’indépendance. Ce genre d’interprétation du silence n’est pas valable, car l’acquiescement ne
peut jouer qu’à l’intérieur d’une relation juridique concrète et directe entre des parties aux intérêts
13CERD: Recommandation générale XXI concernant le droit à l’autodéterminati. et 6r1
[HRI/GEN/1/Rev. 9 (vol. II), p. 29].
14Independent International Fact-Fnding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, vol.I, p.17, par.11
(http://www.ceiig.ch/Report.html).
15Observations écrites du Royaume d’Espagne, 17 juillet 2009, p. 3-4, par. 9-12. - 20 -
contradictoires. Cependant, comme il est évident, ce n’est absolument pas le cas du Conseil de
sécurité qui, de par sa nature, se place sur un plan nettement institutionnel à l’égard de la crise du
Kosovo.
48. Mais, nous ne pouvons pas oublier non plus qu’une telle conclusion ne tiendrait pas
compte des règles qui régissent l’adoption de décisions par le Conseil de sécurité suivant la Charte
des NationsUnies. D’après lesdites règles, les décisions doivent être adoptées par le Conseil de
sécurité expressément. Par conséquent, une «non- décision» ne peut être confondue avec une
décision quelconque, encore moins avec une décision valide pour modifier ou priver de valeur
juridique une mesure préalablement adoptée par le Conseil de sécurité dans le même domaine.
49. Dans ce sens, il nous paraît suffisant de rappeler maintenant l’affirmation faite par la
Cour dans son avis consultatif sur les Conséquences juridiques pour les Etats de la présence
continue de l’Afrique du Sud en Namibie (Sud-Ou est africain) nonobstant la résolution 276 (1970)
du Conseil de sécurité : «Le fait que telle ou telle proposition n’ ait pas été adoptée par un organe
international n’implique pas nécessairement qu’une décision collective inverse ait été prise.»
(C.I.J. Recueil, 1971, p. 36, par. 69.) Une idée qui est même renforcée par le juge Fitzmaurice qui
affirme dans son opinion dissident e que, lorsqu’une proposition n’a eu aucune suite, «en droit, on
ne peut pas soutenir ensuite que la proposition a été acceptée «en réalité» ou qu’à tout le moins elle
n’a pas été «véritablement» rejetée. Ces arguments sont d’ordre purement subjectifs: ne
confondons pas droit et psychologie.» (Ibid., p. 250, note 29.)
50. A cet égard, nous voulons rappeler, en premier lieu, que l’envoyé spécialAhtisaari a
proposé au Conseil de sécurité d’approuver son pl an d’indépendance pour le Kosovo. Ce que le
16
Conseil de sécurité n’a jamais fait . D’où on ne peut qu’en conclure la continuité de la procédure
fondée sur les négociations entre les parties intéressées, afin d’aboutir à un arrangement.
51. Deuxièmement, le silence ne peut pas non plus produire d’effet sur la conformité au droit
international de la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance. Ladite déclaration ne sera objectivement
conforme au droit international que si elle respecte les principes fondamentaux et les autres normes
internationales applicables, y compris la résoluti on1244 (1999). Par ailleur s, le silence ne peut
16A cet égard, le Secrétaire géné ral a affirmé que «le Conseil n’a toutefois pas approuvé cette proposition»
(S/2008/354, par. 3). - 21 -
avoir d’autre effet que d’exprimer l’absence de consensus parmi les Etats membres du Conseil de
sécurité, ce qui l’a empêché jusqu’à présent d’adopter aucune décision, mais sans qu’il s’ensuive de
ce fait que le Conseil se voit dépourvu de ses compétences dans l’affaire.
52. D’autre part, le silence du Secrétaire gé néral, de son représentant spécial et de la
MINUK, ainsi que les changements qui se sont produits dans l’activité de l’ONU au Kosovo ne
peuvent pas être interprétés non plus comme une sorte d’acquiescement. Certes, le représentant
spécial et le Secrétaire général n’ont déclaré nulle et non avenue la déclaration, mais ils ne l’ont pas
pour autant déclarée valide. En plus, ils n’ont pas signifié que le processus soit terminé. Ce qui
ressort en particulier des multiples déclarations du Secrétaire général lui-même, selon lesquelles la
résolution1244 (1999) demeure en vigueur tant que le Conseil de sécurité n’en a pas décidé
autrement, et du fait que le Secrétaire général est maintes fois revenu sur le principe de stricte
neutralité de la présence internationale au Kosovo quant au statut de celui-ci 17.
VII. L A PRÉTENDUE NEUTRALITÉ DU DROIT INTERNATIONAL À L ’ÉGARD DE LA DÉCLARATION
UNILATÉRALE D INDÉPENDANCE
53. Pour conclure cette dernière partie de m on exposé, j’aimerais dire quelques mots sur la
soi-disant neutralité du droit intern ational face à la déclaration unilatérale d’indépendance, comme
conséquence de l’impossibilité de trouver des règles précises de droit international s’y référant.
54. Il s’agit, sans aucun doute, d’un argu ment pour appuyer la logique de ceux qui
considèrent comme un prius la validité de l’indépendance du Kosovo. Mais, il faut dire très
clairement qu’une telle affirmation de la neutralité du droit intern ational ne peut pas se tenir en
droit dans le cas d’espèce.
55. Le droit international est un système juridique composé non seulement des normes, mais
aussi des principes qui doivent s’appliquer à un cas particulier. Ces normes et principes doivent, en
outre, s’appliquer de façon systématique et cont extuelle. Par conséquent, il n’est pas possible
d’accepter, d’après un point de vue juridique, que le droit international puisse rester «neutre» à
l’égard d’un acte (la déclaration unilatérale d’i ndépendance) qui aurait de graves conséquences sur
le plan international. En outre, nous insistons à nouveau sur le fait que la déclaration unilatérale
17
Exposé écrit du Royaume d’Espagne, avril 2009, p. 63, par. 83-84. - 22 -
d’indépendance ne s’est pas produite dans le vide ma is dans le contexte d’un régime international
établi par le Conseil de sécurité qui est soumis au droit.
VIII. C ONCLUSIONS
56. Monsieur le président, Messieurs les juges, je suis obligée de conclure à la conviction de
l’Espagne sur la non-conformité au droit international de la décl aration unilatérale d’indépendance
des institutions provisoires d’administration autono me du Kosovo. Une telle déclaration n’est pas
conforme au principe de souveraineté et d’intégrité territoriale envers la Serbie. Elle n’est pas
conforme non plus au régime international inté rimaire pour le Kosovo établi par le Conseil de
sécurité qui demeure en vigueur. En particulier, il faut remarquer que la déclaration unilatérale
d’indépendance se heurte à l’application de la Charte et au respect des pouvoirs du Conseil de
sécurité conformément à son chapitre VII. Il convient de souligner le manque de sécurité juridique
qui pourrait se produire si un quelconque acteu r, agissant unilatéralement, pourrait écarter les
compétences du Conseil.
57. Et pour finir, je voudrais faire une déclaration de principe. Nous sommes face à une cour
de justice, nous avons décidé de participer à une procédure judiciaire et, par conséquent, l’Espagne
ne peut passer sous silence le fait que, de nos jours, l’état de droit, la prééminence du droit sur le
plan international, ne peuvent pas être ni niés ni anéantis ; qu’il n’y a pas et qu’il ne pourra y avoir
de paix véritable sans le respect du droit; et qu e l’instabilité internationale puise ses racines dans
l’ignorance, le mépris et le non-respect du droit. Bref, face à la politique des faits nous appelons la
raison du droit.
Monsieur le président, Messieurs les juges, je vous remercie de votre aimable attention.
The PRESIDENT: I thank Professor Concepción Escobar Hernández for her presentation. I
shall now give the floor to Mr.HaroldHongjuKoh, to make the oral statement on behalf of the
United States of America.
Mr. HONGJU KOH:
1. Mr. President, honourable Members of the Court, it is a great honour to appear before you
today on behalf of the United States of America, a nation born of a declaration of independence - 23 -
more than two centuries ago, to urge this Court to leave undisturbed the Declaration of
Independence of the people of Kosovo.
2. The United States appears today as a friend of both Serbia and Kosovo. The people of the
United States share a bond of friendship with the pe ople of Serbia marked by co-operation in two
world wars and long-standing political and economic ti es that date back at least to the bilateral
Treaty of Commerce of 1881. Our relationship with the people of Kosovo, strengthened through
crisis these last two decades, continues to grow. That said, our sole task today is to address the
narrow legal question before this Court.
3. Over the past week, those pleading before you have discussed a broad range of issues,
including the validity of recognitions of Kosovo, the effectiveness of the United Nations, the
legality of military actions in 1999, and the potential responsibility of non-State actors for
internationally wrongful acts. Yet the precise questi on put to this Court is much narrower: “Is the
unilateral declaration of independence by the Pr ovisional Institutions of Self-Government of
Kosovo in accordance with internationa l law?” The answer to that question, we submit, is: Yes.
For as a general matter, international law does not regulate declarations of independence, nor is
there anything about Kosovo’s particular Declar ation that would render it not “in accordance with
18
international law” . Standing alone, a declaration neither constitutes nor establishes pol
itical
independence; it announces a political reality or asp iration that must then be achieved by other
means. Declaring independence is fundamentally an act of popular will ⎯ a political act, made by
a body politic, which other States then decide whether to recognize or not 19.
4. To say that international law does not ge nerally authorize or prohibit declarations of
independence signals no lack of respect either for international law or for the work of this Court.
Rather, such a statement merely recognizes that international law does not regulate every human
event, and that an important measure of human lib erty is the freedom of a people to conduct their
own affairs. In many cases, including Kosovo’s, the terms of a declaration of independence can
mark a new nation’s fundamental respect for international law. As our own Declaration put it, a
“decent respect to the Opinions of Mankind” dict ates “that facts be submitted to a candid world”.
18
Written Statement of the United States of America (“US Statement”), pp. 50-55.
1Id., pp. 51-52. - 24 -
Of the more than 100 declarations of independence issued by more than half of the countries in the
20
world , we know of none that has been held by an international court to violate international law.
We submit that this Court should not choose Kos ovo’s Declaration of Independence as the first
case for such unprecedented judicial treatment. For few declarations can match the political
legitimacy of Kosovo’s peaceful declaration, which issued from a body representing the will of the
people, which was born of a successful, decade-long United Nations effort to bring peace and
security to the Balkans region, and reflected the capacity of the people of Kosovo to govern
themselves. As the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, this Court should decline the
invitation to undo the hard work of so many othe r parts of the United Nations system, potentially
destabilizing the situation and unravelling the gains so painstakingly achieved under
resolution 1244 21.
5. Mr.President, a careful consideration of the pleadings before this Court compels three
conclusions, which will structure the rest of my presentation:
⎯ First, Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence brou ght a necessary and stabilizing end to a
turbulent chapter in the history of the Western Balkans, and made possible a transition to a
common European future for the people of Kosovo and their neighbours. The real question
this Court faces is whether to support reopening of this tragic past or whether instead to let
Kosovo and Serbia look forward to this more promising future.
⎯ Second, as a legal matter, there is no inconsistenc y between Kosovo’s peaceful Declaration of
Independence and principles of international law, including Security Council resolution1244.
Like others attending these proceedings who partic ipated in these historical events, I attended
the Rambouillet negotiations as United States Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor, and observed the great pains taken to respect international law and to
preserve human rights througho ut the lengthy diplomatic negotiations that led to
resolution1244, and ultimately to Kosovo’s D eclaration. We respectfully submit that a
Security Council resolution drafted with such an intent did not give birth to a declaration of
independence that violates international law.
20
David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History 3, 20 (2007).
2See Written Comments of the United States of America (“US Comments”), pp. 3-4. - 25 -
⎯ Third, and finally, we question whether this case ⎯ which involves an unprecedented referral
of a narrow, anomalous question ⎯ marks the appropriate occasion for this Court to exercise
its advisory jurisdiction. But should the Court d ecide that it must render an advisory opinion,
the Court would best be served by answering that narrow question in the affirmative: Kosovo’s
Declaration of Independence is in accordance with international law.
I. K OSOVO ’S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
6. Mr.President, you have now heard many times the story of Kosovo’s Declaration of
Independence and the trauma from which it was bor n. That Declaration was the product of not
one, but three overlapping historical processes, which did not preordain Kosovo’s Declaration, but
do help to explain it ⎯ the disintegration of Yugoslavia; the human rights crisis within Kosovo;
the United Nations response.
7. First, from the Bosnia case, this Court knows well the painful story of the Yugoslav
process: the rise of Serb nationalism in the 1980s, followed by the break-up first of the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1991-1992, then of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(FRY) more than a decade later. You know of th e successive independence of Slovenia, Croatia,
22
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and, finally, of Kosovo .
8. Second, you have heard a bout Kosovo’s internal process: the grim, well-chronicled
background of atrocities and ethnic cleansing; how the people of Kosovo suffered years of
exclusion from public facilities and offices; how some 10,000 people were killed in
State-sponsored violence, how 1 million people were driven from the territory, and how the people
of Kosovo developed self-government over nearly ten years of separation from Belgrade. You
know of the dramatic escalation of oppression by Belg rade in the late 1990s; of the atrocities that
were recorded by the United Nations and human rights organizations; of the unsuccessful attempt
to achieve a solution acceptable to both Serbia a nd Kosovo at Rambouillet; of the brutal campaign
of ethnic cleansing launched by Belgrade against ethnic Albanians in the spring of1999; and of
23
the eventual adoption of Security Council resolution 1244 in June of that year .
22
See US Statement, pp. 8-9, 77-78.
2See ibid., pp. 8-22. - 26 -
9. Third, the Declaration at issue did not happen spontaneously; it emerged only after an
extended United Nations process, in which a United Nations administration focused on developing
Kosovo’s self-governing institutions, and a sustained United Nations mediation effort exhausted all
available avenues for a mutually agreed solution, before finally concluding ⎯ in Martti Ahtisaari’s
24
words ⎯ that “the only viable option for Kosovo is independence” .
10. By adopting resolution1244, the Security Council sought to create a framework to
promote two goals. The first was to protect the people of Kosovo, by building an interim
environment where they would be protected by an international security presence ⎯ the NATO-led
KFOR ⎯ and where they could develop political institutions free from Belgrade’s coercion under
25
an international civil presence in the form of UNMIK . Second, the resolutionauthorized the
international civil presence to facilitate a politi cal process designed to determine Kosovo’s future
status, but only at a later stage 26.
11. This United Nations umbrella and game plan provided critical breathing space for
Kosovo to stabilize and develop effective Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG): an
elected assembly, a president, a prime minister, ministries and a judiciary 27. UNMIK steadily
devolved authority to those Kosovo institutions, allo wing the people of Kosovo to rule themselves
free from Belgrade’s influence 28. In 2005, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Kai Eide found
the status quo unsustainable, wh ich led the United Nations Security Council to launch a political
29
process, led by Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaar i, to determineKosovo’s future status . But after
many months of intensive negotia tions involving all interested parties, Special Envoy Ahtisaari
concluded in March2007: (1) that even with au tonomy, Kosovo’s reintegration with Serbia was
“simply not tenable”; (2) that continuing interi m administration without resolving Kosovo’s future
status risked instability; and (3) that furthe r efforts to find common ground between Kosovo and
24
Report of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-Genera l on Kosovo’s Future Status, S/2007/168, 26Mar.2007,
para. 5; emphasis added, Dossier No. 203; see also United States Statement, pp. 22-32.
25
See US Statement, pp. 19-20.
26
See ibid., pp. 20-21.
27See ibid., p. 23.
28See ibid., p. 24.
29
See ibid., pp. 25-26. - 27 -
Serbia were futile . In Mr. Ahtisaari’s words, “the negotiations’ potential to produce any mutually
agreeable outcome onKosovo’s status is exha usted”, and “[n]o amount of additional talks,
31
whatever the format, will overcome this impasse” . Going forward, the Envoy concluded, “the
only viable option forKosovois independence, to be supervised for an initial period by the
32
international community” .
12. While some in these proceedings have qu estioned the integrity and impartiality of the
Special Envoy, a most distinguished Nobel Laureate, the Secretary-General confirmed his full
support for the Special Envoy’s recommendations, having himself, in the Secretary-General’s
words, “taken into account the developments in the process designed to determine Kosovo’s future
33
status” . The entire Contact Group “endorsed fully the United Nations Secretary-General’s
assessment that the status quo is not sustainable” 34. And the Council of the European Union ⎯
including even those members who would late r decline to recognize Kosovo’s independence ⎯
expressed its “full support” for the Special Envo y and “his efforts in conducting the political
process to determine Kosovo’s future status” 35.
13. Nevertheless, a “Troika” of senior negotiators was charged to make a last-ditch effort to
36
find a negotiated solution . According to their report, the Troika “left no stone unturned in trying
to achieve a negotiated settlement of the Kosovo status question” 37. But when those Troika talks
also reached impasse, Kosovo’s elected leaders consulted widely and, on 17 February 2008, issued
38
their Declaration announcing Kosovo as “an independent and sovereign state” .
30
See Report of the Special Envoy of the Secretar y-General on Kosovo’s Future Status, S/2007/168,
26 Mar. 2007, paras. 3-9, 16, Dossier No. 203.
31
Ibid., paras. 3, 5.
32
Ibid., para. 3; emphasis added.
33
See Letter dated 26 March2007 from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council, attaching
Report of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Kosovo’s Future State, S/ 2007/168, 26 Mar. 2007, Dossier
No. 203; see also United States Statement, p. 30.
34
Letter dated 10December2007 from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council,
S/2007/723, 10Dec.2007, Ann.3 (Statement on Kosovo by Contact Group Ministers, New York, 27Sep.2007),
Dossier No. 209.
35
Council of the European Union, 2756th External Relations Council Meeting of 16-17October2006, para.6,
available at http://www.westernbalkans.info/upload/docs/91337.pdf
36
See US Statement, p. 31.
37
Statement of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ann. 5 (Letter of 5 December2007 from German Ambassador
Wolfgang Ischinger to European Union High Representative Javier Solana).
38
See US Statement, pp. 32-33. - 28 -
14. Like many declarations of independence, Kosovo’s Declaration was a general manifesto,
published to all the world, that affirmed the new State’s commitments as a member of the
international community. The Declaration accepte d the obligations in the Ahtisaari Plan, and
announced Kosovo’s desire for friendship and co-operation with Serbia and all States 3.
15. Today, nearly two years later, we see that the Declaration of Independence was the
ultimate product of all three processes I have described: it brought closure to Yugoslavia’s
disintegration; it enshrined human rights protec tions for all communities within Kosovo; and it
broke the impasse in the United Nations process. Yesterday (CR2009/29), counsel for Cyprus
colourfully but inaptly suggested that the Unite d Nations Security Council was involved in the
“amputation” of Kosovo and the “dismemberment” of Serbia. But Cyprus never mentioned that
Kosovo became independent not because of unilatera l, brutal United Nations action, but through
the interaction between a United Nations process that helped end brutality, and the parallel
processes of Yugoslavia’s disintegration and increasing Kosovo self-governance.
16. The simple fact is that resolution1244 works. Without preordaining, it permitted
Kosovo’s independence. Kosovo is now independ ent and functioning effectively. Kosovo has
been recognized by 63nations, and all but one of its immediate neighbours, including former
Yugoslav republics Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. No fewer than 115 of the
world’s nations have treated Kosovo as a State, by either formally recognizing it or voting for its
admission to international financial institutions . And the 2008 Declaration of Independence has
opened the way for a new European future for the people both of Kosovo and the wider Balkans
region.
II.L EGAL ARGUMENTS
17. Mr. President, against this reality, Serbia now seeks an opinion by this Court that would
turn back time, although doing so would underm ine the progress and stability that Kosovo’s
Declaration has brought to the region. As a le gal matter, this Court should find that Serbia’s
desired outcome is dictated neither by general pr inciples of international law, nor by Security
Council resolution 1244.
39
See Declaration of Independence, Docket No. 192; US Statement, pp. 33, 56-57. - 29 -
A. General international law
18. As we detailed in our written pleadings, Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence declared
a political aspiration, which cannot by itself violat e international law. General international law
does not as, a general matter, prohibit or authorize declarations of independence 40. Other nations
accept or reject the legitimacy of a declaration of independence by their willingness or refusal to
treat the entity as a State: and that test only conf irms the legitimacy of Kosovo’s Declaration here.
But without citing any authority, Serbia asks this Court to adopt the opposite, sweeping rule: that
when territory has not been illegally annexed, Se rbia claims, the international law principle of
territorial integrity prohibits all non-consensual secessions, a fortiori, prohibits all declarations of
independence, except where domestic law grants a right of secession or the parent State accepts the
declaration before or soon after the secession 41. Yet as our written filings establish, no such
general international law rule bars declarati ons of independence, nor can there be such ad hoc
42
exceptions to a general rule that does not exist .
19. To see that international law does not prohibit declarations of independence simply
because they were issued without the parent St ate’s consent, one need look no further than
Yugoslavia, where the Slovenian and Croatian decl arations of independence initiated Yugoslavia’s
break-up in 1991. When those declarations issued , Belgrade also declared, wrongly, that both
declarations violated both Yugoslav and internatio nal law. But today, Belgrade no longer makes
those claims. To the contrary, Serbia now asserts that Slovenia’s and Croatia’s secessions were
lawful under international law because they were permitted under Yugoslav domestic law,
40See Malcolm Shaw, “Re: Order in Council P.C. 1996-1497 of 30 September 1996,” in Self-Determination in
International Law: Quebec and Lessons Learned , p.136 (Anne Bayefsky, ed. 2000) (“It is true that the international
community is very cautious about secessionist attempts, especially when the situation is such that threats to international
peace and security are manifest. Nevertheless, as a matter of law the international system neither authorises nor
condemns such attempts, but rather stands neutral. Secession, as such, therefore, is not contrary to international law.”);
John Dugard and David Rai č, “The Role of Recognition in the Law and Practice of Secession”, in Secession:
International Law Perspectives, p. 102 (Marcelo Kohen, ed. 2006) (“One will search in vain for an explicit prohibition of
unilateral secession in international instrume nts. The same is true for the explicit recognition of such a right.”); Daniel
Thürer, “Secession”, in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (Rüdiger Wolfrum, ed.) available at
http://www.mpepil.com , p.2 (“International law, thus, does not statonditions of legality of a secession, and neither
does it provide for a general ‘right of secession’. It does not in general condemn movements aiming at the acquisition of
independence, either.”); see generally US Statement, pp. 50-55; US Comments, pp. 13-14.
41Written Statement of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (“Serbia Statement”), para. 943.
42See US Written Comments, pp. 13-20; see also US Written Statement, pp. 50-55. - 30 -
43
although Belgrade took precisely the opposite position at the time . In reversing its position,
Belgrade nowhere explains how th e international law rule in this area can turn on a question of
domestic law that the international community cannot knowledgeably evaluate. And the second
ad hoc exception that Serbia offers ⎯ that a parent State can make lawful an unlawful declaration
by later acceptance ⎯ conflicts with its own arguments in these proceedings: that the illegality of
a declaration cannot be cured by subsequent events.
20. Neither did Kosovo’s Declaration violate the general principle of territorial integrity. For
that basic principle calls upon States to respect the territorial integrity of other States. But it does
not regulate the internal conduct of groups within States, or preclude such internal groups from
seceding or declaring independence 44. Citing Security Council resolu tions, Serbia claims that the
obligation to respect territorial integrity also regulates non-State actors and precludes them from
declaring independence, whether peacefully or not. But none of the resolutions it cites support that
45
claim . We do not deny that international law may regulate particular declarations of
independence, if they are conjoined with illegal uses of force or violate other peremptory norms,
such as the prohibition against apartheid. But that is hardly the case here, where those declaring
independence did not violate peremptory norms. In fact, Kosovo’s Declaration makes such a deep
commitment to respect human rights precisely because the people of Kosovo had experienced such
egregious human rights abuses.
43Compare Written Comments of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (“Serbia Comments”), para.201
(“With regard to domestic law, some constitutions provide for a right to secession, as it was the case of the S.F.R.Y., only
with regard to the six constituent nations”), witStands and Conclusions of the S.F.R.Y. Presidency Concerning the
Situation in Yugoslavia, 27 June 1991 (reprinted in Yugoslavia Through Documents: From Its Creation to Its
Dissolution, Snezana Tifunovska (ed.), 1994, p.305 (describing the Slovenian and Croatian declarations as
“anti-constitutional and unilateral acts lacking legality and legitimacy on the internal and external plane”).
44See Georges Abi-Saab, “Conclusion”, in Secession: International Law Perspectives , Marcelo Kohen (ed.),
2006, p. 474 (“[I]t would be erroneous to say that secession violates the principle of territorial integrity of the State, since
this principle applies only in international relations, i.e. agai nst other States that are required to respect that integrity a nd
not encroach on the territory of their nei ghbours; it does not apply within the State.”); Malcolm Shaw, “Re: Order in
Council P.C. 1996-1497 of 30 September 1996”, in Self-Determination in Interna tional Law: Quebec and Lessons
Learned, Anne Bayefsky (ed.), 2000, p.136) (“[I]t must be recognized that international law places no analogous
obligation [of respect for territorial integrity] upon individuals or groups within states. The provisions contained in the
relevant international instruments bind states parties to them and not persons and peoples within states.”); see generally
US Comments, pp. 15-20.
45See US Comments, pp. 18-20. - 31 -
B. Resolution 1244
21. Mr.President, Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence comports not just with general
rules of international law, but also with resolution1244, which ⎯ as our written submissions
detail ⎯ anticipated, without predetermining, that i ndependence might be an appropriate outcome
46
for Kosovo’s future status .
22. Mr.President, Members of the Court, if you will look with me at the text of
resolution 1244, you will see it was overwhelmingly driven by the Council’s overriding concern for
resolving the humanitarian and human rights traged y occurring in Kosovo. It demands that the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia “put an immediate and verifiable end to violence and repression in
Kosovo” by beginning a verifiable phased w ithdrawal of security forces on a timetable
synchronized with the phased insertion of an international security presence 47. And the key
paragraphs 10 and 11 authorize the establishment of an international civil presence to “[f]acilitat[e]
a political process designed to determine Kosovo’s future status, taking into account the
Rambouillet accords” 48.
23. Serbia claims that 1244’s explicit re ference to Rambouillet “clearly adopt[ed] the
principle of the continued territorial integrity and sovereignty of the F.R.Y. over Kosovo” 49. But at
the time, Serbia claimed the opposite: it ca lled the Rambouillet Accords an “unprecedented
50
attempt to impose a solution clearly endorsing the separatists’ objectives” . This is not surprising,
because as you heard yesterday from Denmark, a prime objective at Rambouillet was to respect the
will of the people of Kosovo. That is why, as we have seen, Rambouillet carefully avoided
predetermining any particular political outcome, on the one hand, neither favouring independence,
but on the other, never ruling that possibility out.
24. Nor did anything in resolution 1244’s description of the future status process give Serbia
a veto over a future Kosovo declaration of independence 51. To the contrary, the
46See US Statement, pp. 68-79; US Comments, pp. 24-34.
47
See Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), S/RES/1244, para. 3, Dossier No. 34.
48
Ibid., paras. 10, 11; emphasis added.
49
Serbia Statement, para. 784; see also CR 2009/24, p. 71, para. 24 (Shaw, Serbia).
50See US Statement, pp. 16-17, 65.
51See US Comments, pp. 32-37. - 32 -
RambouilletAccords, to which resolution1244 re fers, rejected any requirement that the FRY
consent to Kosovo’s future status 52. In the negotiations over the Accords ⎯ and the four so-called
“Hill Agreements” upon which Rambouillet was modelled ⎯ the negotiators rejected any
requirement that the Federal Repub lic of Yugoslavia consent before Kosovo’s future status could
53
be finally determined . As Professor Murphy explained last Tuesday (CR 2009/25), the first three
drafts of the Hill Agreements would have re quired the FRY’s express agreement to change
Kosovo’s status at the end of the interim period. But, in the fourth draft of the Hill Agreement, that
language was placed in brackets, and no similar re quirement for Belgrade’s approval of future
status appeared in the final version of either the Rambouillet Accords or resolution 1244.
25. Some have claimed during these oral proceedings that the reference in the preamble of
resolution 1244 to the “territorial integrity” of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia proved that the
Security Council was foreclosing independence as a possible outcome. During these proceedings,
one State that sat on the Security Council at the time suggested that all States understood
54
resolution1244 to guarantee perman ently the “territorial integrity” of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia. But if that were true, why did the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia protest at the time
that the resolution “opens up the possibility of the secession of Kosovo... from Serbia and the
55
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” ? And why did nine of the States that were on the Security
Council when it adopted resolution 1244 ⎯ Bahrain, Canada, France, Gambia, Malaysia,
Netherlands, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States ⎯ later recognize Kosovo, if
they had already supposedly voted for a resolution that permanently barred its independence?
26. What Serbia’s argument leaves out is the telling silence in resolu tion 1244, the dog that
did not bark. Resolution 1244 said absolutely nothing about the territorial integrity of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia beyond the interim period. Unlike the previous United Nations Security
Council resolutions on Kosovo, resolution1244 qualifi es its reference to territorial integrity with
the phrase “as set out in Annex 2”. But Annex 2 refers to territorial integrity only in paragraph 8,
52
See US Statement, pp. 65-68.
53
See ibid.
54CR 2009/26, p. 40, para. 12 (Ruiz Cerutti, Argentina).
55Remarks of Mr. Jovanović, Chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Mission of Yugoslavia to the United Nations, in
Security Council debate on adoption of resolution 1244, S/PV.4011, 10 June 1999, p. 6, Dossier No. 33. - 33 -
which in turn describes only the political framework agreement that will cover the interim period.
And while the text of 1244 reaffirms the commitment of “member states” ⎯ not internal groups ⎯
to the territorial integrity of the FRY, even this it did only during the interim period , without
56
limiting the options for future status .
27. As important, the resolution refers not to preserving the territorial integrity of Serbia, but
57
the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , an entity that no longer exists .
Even though the resolution required Kosovo to remain within the FRY, it never required Kosovo to
remain within “Serbia”. To the contrary, as we have explained, the resolution specifically avoided
any such implication, to preserve the possibility of what were called at the time “third republic
options”, under which Kosovo might end up as a third republic within the borders of a
58
three-republic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, alongside Serbia and Montenegro .
28. Resolution1244’s reference to territo rial integrity was further qualified by the
resolution’s explicit reference, in preambular paragraph10, not just to Annex2, which as I have
explained applied only during the interim period, but also to the Helsinki Final Act. The Helsinki
reference underscored the Security Council’s ove rriding humanitarian concern with protecting
59
civilians, by keeping Kosovo detached from the Serbia that had so harshly oppressed them .
Kosovo had famously suffered massive, systematic human rights abuses throughout the decade,
which led the FRY to be suspended from partic ipation in the OSCE. And thus, 1244’s pointed
reference to the Helsinki Final Act underscored that the Security Council was reaffirming the
FRY’s territorial integrity, not as an absolute principle, but as only one of many principles—
including most obviously, Helsinki human rights commitments — that would need to be considered
with each principle ⎯ in the Final Act’s words ⎯ “being interpreted taking into account the
60
others” .
56
See US Statement, pp. 68-71; US Comments, pp. 25-29.
57No one is challenging that Serbia is the legal continuity of the FRY, but the law of State succession does not
mean that all references in international documents to a pa rent are automatically consider ed to apply to a continuation
State. See US Comments, p. 29.
58See US Statement, pp. 74-78; US Comments, pp. 29-31. Our Written Comments describe Belgrade’s desire to
avoid this possibility. Belgrade called such proposals “themost perfidious fraud Serbia has ever been exposed to”,
US Comments, pp. 30-31.
59See US Statement, pp. 71-74.
60Helsinki Final Act, 1 Aug. 1975, available at http://www.osce.org/documents/mcs/1975/08/4044_en.pdf. - 34 -
29. Serbia and its supporters never specify precisely which words in resolution1244 they
believe that Kosovo violated. But some suggest that Kosovo violated international law by
preventing UNMIK from carrying out its mandate under paragraph11 (e) “to facilitate a political
process” designed to determine Kosovo’s future status . But that paragraph required only that the
international civilian presence facilitate “a” political process ⎯ not multiple political processes 61.
And by the time that Kosovo declared independe nce in February 2008, the specific political
process envisioned by resolution 1244 had ended. Th e future status process had run its course, the
negotiations’ potential to produce any mutually agreed outcome on Kosovo’s status had been
exhausted. With the Secretary-General’s support, the Special Envoy ⎯ who was charged with
determining the scope and duration of that political process ⎯ had announced that “[n]o amount of
additional talks, whatever the format, will overcom e this impasse”, and the Envoy had specifically
declared that the only viable option for Kosovo was independence.
30. In these proceedings, some argue that the effort by some States, including the United
States, to secure a new Security Council resolution on Kosovo in July 2007 62 somehow proves that
we considered a successor resolution to 1244 legally necessary for Kosovo to become independent.
But the draft 2007 resolution, like resolution1244, was entirely “status-neutral”. Its central legal
purpose was to terminate UNMIK’s operations in Kosovo, as the Ahtisaari Plan had envisioned.
Nothing in the draft resolution would have decided on, or even endorsed a recommendation for,
Kosovo’s independence. Its non-enactment meant onl y that adjustments would be needed in the
roles of UNMIK and the international actors envi sioned in the Ahtisaari Plan. If anything, the
success of the subsequent co-ord ination only underscores the cons istency of the declaration of
independence with the operation of United Nations entities under resolution 1244.
31. In short, by February 2008, the absence of any prospect of bridging the divide between
Serbia and Kosovo had rendered an y further negotiations pointless 63. In these proceedings, Serbia
ironically charges Kosovo with bad faith, suggesting that Kosovo’s position favouring
independence in the negotiations is in “sharp contrast” with 1244’s requirements that “the
6See US Comments, pp. 32, 36.
62
A draft of the resolution is attached as exhibit 36 to Serbia’s Statement.
6US Statement, pp. 79-84. - 35 -
64
sovereignty and territorial integrit y of Serbia should be safeguarded” . But neither UNMIK,
Ahtisaari, nor the Troika ever suggested that Kosovo was negotiating in bad faith . Serbia claims
that Kosovo did not need independence because Serbia had offered Kosovo the “highest degree of
65
autonomy” under resolution1244 . But anyone who has read the factual findings of the Trial
Chamber in the Milutinović case, who has seen photographs of Serbian tanks stationed outside the
Kosovo Assembly building in March 1989, or who fo llowed events in the Balkans during the last
two decades, understands why the entire Contact Gr oup identified Belgrade’s “disastrous policies
of the past [as lying] at the heart of the current problem” 66. The Contact Group admonished Serbia,
not Kosovo, “to demonstrate much greater flex ibility” and “to begin considering reasonable and
workable compromises” 6.
32. Nor would it establish any violation of intern ational law to argue that the Declaration of
68
Independence was an ultra vires act by the Kosovo Assembly . For even if it were true that the
Declaration somehow exceeded the authority conferred on the Assembly by UNMIK under the
Constitutional Framework, that would only amount to a claim that it was issued by the wrong
persons in Pristina. But if the Declaration were considered flawed b ecause it issued from the
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, that technicality could now easily be fixed simply by
having a different constituent body within Kosovo re issue it. No one doubts that the people of
Kosovo wanted independence, or that the Declara tion expressed their will. The people of Kosovo
declared independence not under a “top-down” grant of domestic law authority from UNMIK, but
rather, from a “bottom-up” expression of the will of the people of Kosovo, who left no doubt of
their desire for independence.
33. Finally, even assuming for the sake of argument that the Declaration did somehow
violate the Constitutional Framework, that Framew ork, like other regulations adopted by UNMIK,
64Serbia Statement, para. 919.
65CR 2009/24, p. 58, para. 46 (Zimmermann, Serbia); Serbia Statement, para. 203.
66Statement by the Contact Group on the Future of Kosovo, London, 31 Jan. 2006, available at
http://pristina.usembassy.gov/press20060131a.html
67Contact Group Ministerial Statement, Vienna, 24Ju ly2006, available at http ://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr
/en/IMG/pdf/statement_Vienne_24_juillet_version_finale.pdf.
68US Statement, p.57, Note 231; US Comments, pp. 38-39. - 36 -
69
operated as domestic, not international, law . We have previously demonstrated that UNMIK
regulations must be domestic law because they operated at the domestic level, replace existing
70
laws, and regulate local matters . In these proceedings Serbia h as conceded the accuracy of this
point, but argued that UNMIK rules somehow constitute international law because they were issued
by the Security Council, an international authority 71. But just because th e Security Council
authorized UNMIK to establish Kosovo’s domestic law did not automatically convert that domestic
law into international law. For example, an automobile driver in Kosovo might violate a speed
limit in an UNMIK traffic regulation, but he su rely does not violate international law simply
because the entity that promulgated the law agai nst speeding was created by an international
body 72.
34. Mr. President, if there were ever a time when United Nations officials could have acted
to set aside the Declaration of Independence, it was soon after that Declaration issued in
February2008. But the responsible organs of the United Nations made a considered decision
nearly two years ago not to invalidate that Declaration of I ndependence. They made that decision
with full awareness of that Declaration’s specific acceptance of resolution1244 and the
international presences established by it, and fully aware of Kosovo’s pledge to act consistently
with all Security Council resolutions and requirements of international law 73.
III. T HE C OURT SHOULD ANSWER ONLY THE NARROW QUESTION POSED
35. Finally, Mr.President, the Court should answer only the narrow question posed. What
all this has demonstrated is just how anomalous and narrow is the question presented in this case.
It is not a question about whether Kosovo is an independent State today, nor whether it has been
properly recognized. Nor is this case about wh ether UNMIK and the United Nations should be
69UNMIK’s grant of authority was to exercise “legislative and executive power⎯ that is what it was doing
when it promulgated Regulation 2001/9 ⎯ and its responsibility was to “change, repeal or suspend existing laws to the
extent necessary for the carrying out of [its] functions”, Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim
Administration in Kosovo, S/1999/779, 12 July 1999, Dossier No. 37. A contemporaneous 2001 commentary noted that
Regulation 2001/9, the Constitutional Framework, assigns tthe Special Representative of the Secretary-General and
KFOR “the powers that are typically associated with a fe deral government”, A. Zimmerm an and C. Stahn, “Yugoslav
Territory, United Nations Trusteeship or Sovereign State”, 70 Nordic Journal of International Law 423, 428 (2001).
70
See US Comments, pp. 39-42.
71
See CR 2009/24, p. 48, paras. 39-41 (Djerić, Serbia).
72See US Comments, pp. 39-42 and citations therein.
73See US Statement, pp. 84-89; US Comments, pp. 43-45. - 37 -
doing anything differently. It is not about whether United Nations institutions empowered to do so
acted properly in declining to i nvalidate the Declaration of Independence nearly two years ago.
Finally, it is not about whether Kosovo’s future status talks ⎯ which were properly ended as
“exhausted” years ago ⎯ could or should now be resumed.
36. The usual premise upon which the Court’ s advisory jurisdiction rests is that the
requesting organ ⎯ here, the General Assembly ⎯ needs the Court’s legal advice to carry out its
functions effectively 74. But here the question has been ask ed not to give the Assembly legal
75
advice, so much as to give advice to Member States . Resolution 63/3, which referred the
advisory question to the Court, nowhere indicat es how the Court’s opinion would relate to any
planned activity of the General Assembly nor does it identify any constructive use to which the
General Assembly might put a Court opinion. And unlike every prior occasion on which the
General Assembly has request ed an advisory opinion, resolution63/3 was adopted not in
connection with a substantive agenda item for the General Assembly’s work, but rather, only under
an ad hoc agenda item created for the sole purpose of requesting an advisory opinion from this
Court 7.
37. Ironically, the Member State who supporte d the referral of this narrow question has
avowed that the Court’s answer will not change even its conduct. Serbia has repeatedly said that it
will not recognize Kosovo “at any cost, even in the event that the [Court’s] decision is in favor of
Pristina” 77. But, Mr.President, this Court has no obligation to issue advisory opinions that the
moving State has already suggested it might ignore, that seek to reopen long ended political
negotiations that responsible United Nations offici als have concluded are futile, or that seek to
74
See US Statement, pp. 42-45; US Comments, pp. 10-12.
75
As this Court has emphasized in the past, adviso ry opinions serve to advise the organs of the United Nations,
not individual Member States. In seeking support for its re solution, Serbia continually em phasized not the need of the
General Assembly for an answer to the question, but the purported right oMember States to refer a question to the
Court. Serbia frankly described this ca se as being “about the right of any memb er State of the United Nations to pose a
simple, elementary question”, asserting be fore the General Assembly that “[n]o country should be denied the right to
refer such a matter to the ICJ”; and that a vote against the resolution “would in effect be a vote to deny the right of any
country to seek ⎯ now or in the future ⎯ judicial recourse through the United Nations system”. See US Statement,
p. 44.
76See US Comments, pp. 11-12.
77See ibid., p. 10. - 38 -
enlist the Court to unravel delicate political arrangements that have brought stability to a troubled
region.
38. We therefore urge this Court to leave Kosovo’s Declaration undisturbed ⎯ either by
refusing to issue an opinion or by simply answer ing in the affirmative the question presented:
whether Kosovo’s Declaration of Indepe ndence accords with international law 78. As our written
pleadings make clear, the Court may answer the qu estion posed to it and opine that international
law did not prohibit Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence, without addressing other political
situations or complex issues of self-determination raised by a number of States in these
proceedings 79.
39. But if the Court should find it necessary to examine Kosovo’s Declaration through the
lens of self-determination, it should consider the unique legal and factual circumstances of this
case, which include the extensive Security Counci l attention given to Kosovo; the large-scale
atrocities against the people of Kosovo that led to Rambouillet and the 1244 process; the United
Nations concern for the will of the people of Ko sovo, their undivided territory and the unique
historical, legal, cultural and linguistic attributes; the lengthy history of Kosovo’s autonomy; the
participation of Kosovo’s representatives in the internationally led political process; the
commitment of the people of Kosovo in their Declaration to respect prior Security Council
resolutions and international law; and the deci sion by United Nations organs to leave undisturbed
80
Kosovo’s move to independence .
40. Mr.President, in its presentation yesterda y, Cyprus pointedly sought to analogize
the1244 process to the heart-wrenching, but mi sleading, case where a parent sends a small child
off to State supervision, only to lose her forever. But upon reflection, the far better analogy would
be to acknowledge the futility of the State forci ng an adult child to return to an abusive home
against her will, particularly where the parent a nd child have already long lived apart, and where
repeated efforts at reconciliation have reached im passe. There, as here, declaring independence
would be the only viable option, and would certainly be in accordance with law.
78See US Statement, pp. 45-49; US Comments, p. 10.
79
See US Comments, pp. 21-23.
80See ibid., pp. 21-23. - 39 -
IV. C ONCLUSION
41. In conclusion, Mr.President, Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence has proven to be
necessary and politically stabilizing. The 2008 Declaration of Independence, and the ensuing
recognition of Kosovo by many nations, brought mu ch needed stability to the Balkans and closed
the books on the protracted break-up of what once was Yugoslavia 81. Kosovo’s Declaration of
Independence emanated from a process superv ised by the UnitedNations, which through
resolution1244 and the institutions it established, was deeply involved in Kosovo’s past and
present. And the Declaration of Independence has now made possible a future in which Kosovo is
not merely independent politically, but also sel f-sufficient economically, administratively, and
civilly.
42. Although Serbia, acting through the Genera l Assembly, has urged the Court to issue an
advisory opinion it hopes will reopen status negotia tions to redetermine Ko sovo’s future, it has
given this Court no reason to upend what has b ecome a stable equilibrium. For Kosovo is now
independent. Both Kosovo and Serbia are part of Europe’s future. As the principal judicial organ
of the United Nations, this Court should not be co nscripted into a Member State’s effort to roll
back the clock nearly a decade, undoing a careful process accomplished under resolution 1244 and
overseen by so many other United Nations bodies: the Security Council; the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General; two Special Envoys, UNMIK and the Troika 82. And
when Kosovo’s independence has finally closed on e of the most painful chapters in modern
European history, this Court should not use its advisory jurisdiction to reopen that chapter. Instead,
we should all look to a common future in which Serbia and an independe nt Kosovo have vitally
important roles to play.
43. Mr.President, honourable Members of the Court, on behalf of my country, I thank you
for your thoughtful attention.
The PRESIDENT: I thank Mr. Harold Hongju Koh for the oral statement and the comments
of the United States of America that he has presented.
81
See ibid., p. 3.
8See ibid. - 40 -
I believe it is a good time to take our customary coffee break of 15 minutes. Thank you.
The Court adjourned from 11.30 to 11.45 a.m.
The PRESIDENT: Please be seated. I shall now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Kirill
Gevorgian to make the oral statement on the behalf of the Russian Federation.
Mr. GEVORGIAN:
INTRODUCTION
1. Mr. President, Members of the Court, it is a great privilege to me to address you again on
behalf of my country. The question currently un der consideration concerns the most fundamental
principles of international law, and the authority of the world’s principal collective bodies. It is
also an opportunity for the Court to contribute to the strengthening of the international rule of law
and to the achievement of the purposes of the United Nations Charter.
2. The Russian Federation has been an active participant of the political processes relating to
Kosovo ever since the situation in that region app eared on the international agenda, always guided
by its commitment to international law and by its special responsibilities as a permanent member of
the United Nations Security Council.
3. The position of the Russian Federation on the question before the Court is reflected in our
Written Statement. This morning I will focus on the points we find essential and also address the
arguments most frequently put forward by the supporters of Kosovo’s independence.
The question before the Court
4. The Russian Federation believes that the Court has jurisdiction to exercise the present
request for advisory opinion. The question before the Court is a legal one, and the General
Assembly, no doubt, was competent to raise it. The question is narrow in scope. However, to
answer it, it is important to the Court to co nsider a broader process leading to purported
independence of Kosovo. This is contemplated by the wording of the United Nations General - 41 -
83
Assembly resolution63/3, statements made in connection to its adoption , and by arguments
advanced by the participants to these hearings.
I. G ENERAL INTERNATIONAL LAW
Whether international law regulates declarations of independence
5. Mr.President, it has been argued that international law either does not regulate
declarations of independence or does not generally prohibit them 84. Contrary to that, as it was
85
rightly pointed out by some delegations during these pleadings , several declarations of
86
independence have been considered unlawful by the Security Council or by the General
Assembly, when they were a part of a broader scheme which itself was contrary to international
law.
6. Indeed, an analysis of available cases lead s to an inevitable conclusion: an independence
declaration was considered unlawful if the underlying claim for statehood was considered
unlawful. This was the case of northern Cyprus or Southern Rhodesia. And, vice versa, where the
creation of a new State was in accordance with international law, then its declaration of
independence was also lawful. This was the case, in particular, of the former republics of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and those of the Soviet Union.
7. To sum up: international law does govern declarations of independence, and the criteria
of their legality are the same as those applicable to the legality of the creation of new States.
Whether the population of Kosovo is a self-determination unit
8. It is widely acknowledged that, outside th e colonial context, secession without consent of
the parent State may only occur in the exercise of the right of a people to self-determination and
only in exceptional circumstances.
83A/63/PV.22, 8 Oct. 2008.
84CR2009/25, p.38 (Müller); CR2009/26, p.12 (Frowe in), pp.27-29 (Wasum-Rainer); CR2009/27, pp.8-9
(Tichy); CR 2009/28, pp. 23-24 (Dimitroff); CR 2009/29, p. 65 (Metelko-Zgombić).
85CR2009/29, p.68 (Winkler). See also CR2009/26, pp .12-13 (Frowein) and CR2009/27, p.9 (Tichy);
CR 2009/28, p. 24 (Dimitroff).
86United Nations Security Council resoluti1983), 18ov. 83 (Cyprus); Security
Council resolutions 216 (1965), 12 Nov. 1965 and 217 (1965), 20 Nov. 1965 (Southern Rhodesia). - 42 -
9. To be entitled to the right to self-determination, the population of Kosovo must qualify as
a self-determination unit under international law. It has already been shown by other participants
that the population of Kosovo does not fall under any of the traditional categories of peoples
87
entitled to self-determination .
10. For this reason, the authors of the UDI and their supporters have spent considerable
efforts to show that the population of Kosovo should be regarded as a people for the purposes of
self-determination due to the particularities of th e federal structure of the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. The main points have been made about the scope of competences of
Kosovo and the fact that it was directly represented at the federal level 88. But that is hardly
relevant. What matters is the le gal qualification of a given population as of a people. And that is
something that is obviously lacking from the successive Constitutions of Socialist Yugoslavia.
11. This finding with respect to Kosovo is supported by numerous inte rnational documents.
89
The Court has already been advised that ne ither the opinion of the Badinter Commission , nor the
Security Council resolutions 90, nor other relevant documents have ever spoken of a right to
self-determination for people of Kosovo. Moreove r, the Badinter Commission declared in 1992
that the process of the dissolution of the SFRY wa s complete, without having ever turned to a
possibility of independence for Kosovo 91.
The meaning of the “will of the people” in Rambouillet Accords
12. In the context of self-determination, so me participants have put an emphasis on the
Rambouillet Accords, namely, on the words “the will of the people” in paragraph 3 of Article I in
their final chapter 92. That paragraph provides
87CR 2009/24, p. 78 (Kohen); CR 2009/27, pp. 31-32.
88See, e.g., CR 2009/25, p. 17 (Wood); CR 2009/29, pp. 53-61 (Metelko-Zgombić).
89
Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, Arbitrat ion Commission, Opinions No.1-3, European Journal of
International Law, vol. 3, 1992, pp. 182-185; Opinions No. 4-10, European Journal of International Law, Vol. 4, 1993,
pp. 74-91.
90UnitedNations Security Council resolutions1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (1998) 1239 (1998) and 1244
(1999).
91Opinion No. 8 , 4 July 1992, in Peace Conference on Yugos lavia, Arbitration Commission, Opinions No. 4-10,
European Journal of International Law, Vol. 4, 1993, pp. 87-88.
92
CR 2009/25, p. 12 (Hyseni), pp. 47, 52-56 (Murphy); CR 2009/27, p. 13 (Tichy). - 43 -
“Three years after the entry into force of this Agreement, an international
meeting will be convened to determine a mechanism for a final settlement for Kosovo,
on the basis of the will of the people, opinions of relevant authorities
, each Party’s
efforts regarding the implementation of th is Agreement, and the Helsinki Final
Act . . .”93
13. It has been argued that this provision recognized the existence of a “Kosovo people” and
thus its entitlement to self-determination.
14. Mr.President, in reality, this example only shows how far the international community
was from acknowledging the right of the population of Kosovo to self-determination.
15. First, the main idea of the Accords was to “establish institutions of democratic
self-government in Kosovo grounded in respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” 94. Throughout the text, the Accords carefully avoided anything
close to the “people of Kosovo”: they consis tently used terms such as “national communities” 95,
96 97
“all persons in Kosovo” , “all citizens in Kosovo” , etc. So if the Rambouillet Accords did take a
stance on self-determination, it was a negative one 98.
16. Second, the words “the will of the people” do not necessarily refer to the population of
Kosovo only and could very well encompass the whole population of the country concerned, or
else reflect the general notion of “popular will” as a principle of democracy.
17. And it should also be borne in mind that the Rambouillet Accords have never acquired
any binding force.
18. In sum, Mr.President, the Rambouillet Accords cannot be seen as a recognition by the
international community of the existence of a Kosovo people entitled to self-determination.
“Remedial secession” is not applicable to Kosovo
19. Mr. President, another argument put forward by the supporters of the UDI relates to the
concept of the so-called “remedial secession”.
93
Rambouillet Accords: Interim Agreement for Peace a nd Self-Government in Kosovo, UN doc.S/1999/648,
7 June 1999.
94
See Rambouillet Accords, op. cit., Chap. 1, fourth preambular paragraph of the Constitution.
95
See, e.g., ibid., preamble on p. 3; Art. I (1) of the Framework; Chap. 1, preamble, Art. I (2) and (7), Art. VII of
the Constitution, etc.
96See, e.g., ibid., Art. II (3) and (6) of the Framework, etc.
97See, e.g., ibid., Art. I (2) of the Framework; Chap. 1, Art. I (2) and (7), Art. IX of the Constitution, etc.
98United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), operative para.11 (a) and (f), Anns. 1 and 2. - 44 -
20. If ever the situation in Kosovo came close to the criteria of remedial secession, that was
in the spring of the year1999. Yet, even at that time the international community reaffirmed the
territorial integrity of the FRY.
21. For Kosovo to be able to rely on “remedia l secession” in 2008, it has to demonstrate that
the situation had aggravated as compared to 1999. It is obvious that this was not the case. By
2008, there was clearly no threat to the populati on of Kosovo coming from the Serbian authorities,
and there were clearly full chances for a nego tiated solution for a truly self-governing Kosovo
within the State of Serbia.
22. Therefore, the notion of “remedial secessi on” is obviously inapplicable in the case at
hand.
Conclusion: no basis for Kosovo independence in general international law
23. Mr.President, international law assesses the legality of declarations of independence
against the same standards as are applied to the legality of the creation of States. If ever creation of
a State through secession without consent of th e parent State is permitted under current
international law, it is only on the basis of the right of a people to self-determination and only in
exceptional circumstances that evidently did not exist in Kosovo when the UDI was adopted.
24. The population of Kosovo has never been recognized as a self-determination unit. There
is no basis for that either in the constitutional sy stem of Socialist Yugoslavia or in the Rambouillet
Accords, let alone other international instruments. Anyway, the international community reacted to
the 1999 crisis without acknowledging the right of Kosovo to secession. Therefore, the events of
1999 cannot serve as the basis for independence for Kosovo in 2008 when the internal realization
of all rights of the Kosovo population as a self-governing autonomy within the State of Serbia was
clearly possible.
25. Consequently, in the view of the Russian Federation, general international law precludes
Kosovo from declaring independence.
II.SECURITY C OUNCIL RESOLUTION 1244
26. Mr.President, Members of the Court, the situation in Kosovo has been, and still is,
governed by resolution 1244 adopted by the Unite d Nations Security Council under Chapter VII of - 45 -
the United Nations Charter. The régime establis hed by the resolution safeguards the territorial
integrity of Serbia and precludes any unilateral ac tion in Kosovo either by its Albanian community
or by Belgrade. The UDI is incompatible with the resolution which, by virtue of the United
Nations Charter, is binding on all parties, including third States and non-State actors.
General remarks
27. Resolution1244 was the result of a trag ic chain of developments, including serious
violations of human rights of the Kosovo Alba nian community by the FRY’s authorities, the
emergence of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), acts of terrorism committed by the KLA and
other armed groups and then the internal armed conf lict. All this is reflected in the Security
Council resolutions which preceded resolution1244. Then followed the unlawful use of force by
NATO.
28. Resolution 1244 allowed to return the situati on to the legal realm. In many respects, the
implementation of the resolution has been positive. In many others, serious challenges remain.
The Russian Federation is convinced that it is in the interest of all States and of all organs of the
United Nations to strive for an ultimate success of the resolution. Moreover, any attempt to
challenge the régime established by it represents a challenge to the authority of the Security
Council, and thus is unacceptable.
29. In this context it is ironic, to say the least, that the Unilateral Declaration of
Independence, clearly contradicting the resolution, was adopted by structures whose very existence
was based on the resolution which was thus obviously binding upon them. Here, Russia joins those
who have spoken of the ultra vires nature of the UDI by the Provisional Institutions of
99
Self-Government of Kosovo . As to the argument that the UDI was adopted not by the PISG but
by some ad hoc democratically elected body 10, it is sufficient to say that it is not true factually, but
even if it were true, it is irrelevant legally, since the régime established by the resolution1244 is
not to be breached by either the PISG or any other group or gathering.
99
See, e.g., CR 2009/24, pp. 41-43 (Djerić).
10See, e.g., CR 2009/25, pp. 34 et seq. (Müller); CR 2009/26, p. 26 (Wasum-Rainer); CR 2009/27, p. 7 (Tichy);
CR 2009/29, p. 64 (Metelko-Zgombić). - 46 -
30. Mr. President, the position of the Russian Federation, ever since the Kosovo issue arose
on the Security Council agenda, was on the basis of the general principles of international law, it
was unacceptable for the Security Council to en courage or authorize any action that would
dismember a sovereign State. The goal that the Council’s decisions remain within that principle
has been secured. This is true for resolutions1160, 1199, 1203, 1239, and this is also true for
resolution 1244. The fact that resolution 1244 could not be construed as opening a possibility for a
unilateral secession of a part of a sovereign State was a crucial element for Russia to vote in favour
of that resolution.
31. Let me now explain why the resolution cannot be interpreted as allowing the principles
of sovereignty and territorial integrity to be breached in respect of Serbia.
Substantial requirements for a final settlement:
territorial integrity of Serbia
32. In the preamble of the resolution, the Security Council reaffirmed “the commitment of all
Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federa l Republic of Yugoslavia
and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act and annex2”. It has been
argued that this provision is non-binding, that it only refers to the commitment of Member States
and thus not to the commitment by the Security Council or non-State entities, and that the reference
to Annex2 means that these commitments are only valid as long as the interim period is in
101
place .
33. Several remarks are in order here.
34. First of all, the duty to respect soverei gnty and territorial integr ity exists independently
from resolution1244. It is a legal obligation stemming from peremptory norms of international
law. Those norms are binding not only upon Member States, but upon all subjects of international
law. The Security Council could not conceivably e ither establish that obligation or terminate it;
neither could it limit that obligation by any time-frame.
35. Further, the reference to Annex2 in connection with the territorial integrity of
Yugoslavia addresses paragraph 8 of that Annex speaking of
101
CR 2009/25, pp. 50-51 (Murphy). - 47 -
“an interim political framework agreement providing for substantial self-government
for Kosovo, taking full account of the Rambouillet accords and the principles of
sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the
other countries of the region”.
36. To interpret this wording as limiting the commitment to territorial integrity only by the
interim period would mean that territorial integrity may be disregarded unless expressly reaffirmed.
Such an approach would clearly contradict the peremptory nature of the principle of territorial
integrity. The fact that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the FRY is mentioned along with
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of “other countries of the region” clearly shows that the
commitment to the territorial integrity of Serbia is permanent and unquestionable.
37. The real meaning of the preambular paragraph of the resolution was to underline that
Annex 2 is to be read in harmony with the principl e of territorial integrity; that Annex 2 developed
that principle. This interpretation is in accordance with the rest of the text of the resolution that is
in general based on the respect for th e territorial integrity of Serbia. It is also important that in the
preamble of resolution 1244 the Security Council is “reaffirming the call in previous resolutions for
substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administr ation for Kosovo”. Nothing suggests that this
call is limited to the interim period established by resolution 1244.
38. Some participants rely on paragraph11 (e) of the resolution that envisages “a political
process designed to determine Kosovo’s future status, taking into account the Rambouillet
accords”. It is argued that because the final pr ovision of Rambouillet spoke about the “will of the
people” as a basis for a settlement, the reference to Rambouillet means that the final settlement
102
may envisage independence if that were the “will of the people” .
39. The reading is incorrect. The value of Rambouillet lies not in its final procedural
provision. As I have already mentioned, Ram bouillet is a detailed framework for a full-fledged
self-government for Kosovo within Serbia.
40. Therefore, paragraph11 (e) means that “Kosovo’s future status” is to be determined
along the lines proposed in the substantial part of Rambouillet, that is on the basis of
self-government within Serbia.
102
CR 2009/25, pp. 12 (Hyseni) and 52 (Murphy); CR 2009/26, pp. 16-17 (Frowein); CR 2009/27, p. 13 (Tichy). - 48 -
41. And this is further confirmed by the fact that the need to take account of Rambouillet is
mentioned in the resolution more than once. A ll the other instances where it is mentioned speak
about the interim period. And in the interim period, obviously, Rambouillet was to serve as a
model for substantial self-government of Kosovo within Serbia. To say that the virtually identical
references meant the whole of Rambouillet in thr ee cases and only its final technical provision in
the fourth case clearly goes against any sound logic.
42. Therefore, the allegations that the reference to Rambouillet in resolution 1244 opened the
way for the independence of Kosovo, should be rejected.
43. On the contrary, the reference to Rambouillet is a clear indication that the final
settlement for Kosovo must be within the State of Serbia. There is no lang uage in resolution 1244
that can be interpreted otherwise.
Procedural requirements: a negotiated solution endorsed by the Security Council
44. So much about the contents of the se ttlement. Let me now turn to the procedure
envisaged to reach the settlement.
45. Both the plain and the legal meaning of the word “settlement” is that it is a negotiated
solution to a dispute.
46. Indeed, the second sentence of paragraph 8 of Annex 2 to the resolution contains a clear
reference to “[n]egotiations between the parties for a settlement”.
47. Apart from that, resolution 1244 requires that the final settlement is to be endorsed by the
Security Council. Thus, paragraph19 of th e resolution provides that the international
administration is deployed for an indefinite period of time, “unless the Security Council decides
otherwise”. Therefore, the interim period during which Kosovo is to re main under international
administration, has to last until the Security Council takes the decision to terminate it.
48. Such understanding of the resolution is fully supported by subsequent practice, in
particular during the final status process launche d in2005. Thus, the “Guiding Principles for a
settlement of the status of Kosovo” agreed by the Contact Group in November 2005 and reflecting
the joint approach of the international community to the final status process, stated: “A negotiated - 49 -
solution should be an international priority. . . . The final decision on the status of Kosovo should
be endorsed by the Security Council” 103.
49. It has been argued that the requirement of a negotiated settlement was superseded by the
criterion of the settlement being in accordance w ith the “will of the people” in the Rambouillet
104
Accords . I have already demonstrated, that particul ar provision of Rambouillet is irrelevant for
the purposes of the final settlement process.
50. To sum up, Mr.President, resolution1244 envisages that the final settlement of the
Kosovo status must be negotiated between the parties and endorsed by the Security Council. What
is absolutely incompatible with the resolution, is a unilateral solution. As put in the Contact Group
Guiding Principles, “[a]ny solution that is unilate ral or results from the use of force would be
105
unacceptable” .
The time frame of the final status process
51. There is another important procedural point related to the final settlement, namely, the
time-frame. The supporters of the UDI argue that the final status process was terminated when
President Ahtisaari declared that the negotiations had been exhausted.
52. Yet, as has been shown, under resolution 124 4 it was for the Security Council to decide
on the termination of the interim period and the beginning of the “final stage”. Obviously, a
resolution cannot be overruled by an individual opinion of a negotiator.
53. In fact, Mr.Ahtisaari’s determination was not supported by the Security Council. The
Council chose to continue the process, in accordance with the previously agreed principles. First
came the Council’s mission to Kosovo; then the Troika negotiations. The fact that they have not
brought a result does not mean that the negotiations should be considered exhausted.
54. Accordingly, the interim period with resp ect to Kosovo is still ongoing. Therefore, all
the provisions of the resolution concerning the preser vation of the territorial integrity of Serbia
during the interim period remain fully in force. For these reasons, the failure of the Ahtisaari Plan
and the Troika negotiations could not authorize th e Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, or
103
S/2005/709, 10 Nov. 2005, p. 2.
104
See, e.g., CR 2009/25, pp. 52-56 (Murphy).
10S/2005/709, 10 Nov. 2005, p. 3. - 50 -
indeed any subject in Kosovo, to unilaterally d eclare independence. They continued to be bound
by the obligation to respect the territorial integrity of Serbia.
The approach of the parties to the negotiations
55. Mr.President, some further remarks on the final status process are appropriate at this
stage.
56. At the very beginning and in full accordan ce with resolution1244, Serbia declared that
the process should lead to a settlement based on a special status of Kosovo within Serbia 106. So the
respect for the territorial integrity of Serbia was the consideration under which the country agreed
to start the process.
57. In spite of that, the Ahtisaari Plan e nvisaged an independence for Kosovo. So the
negotiator not only failed in securing a negotiated se ttlement, but came up with a proposal that ran
counter to resolution 1244 and clearly disregarded the position of one of the parties.
58. At the Troika negotiations that followe d with Russian participation, Serbia made
successive proposals, each time agreeing to grant Kosovo more and more autonomous rights,
including not only virtually full governmental powers inside Kosovo, but also a separate
membership in international financial institutions. During the negotiations, Serbia adopted a new
Constitution, in which the principle of a broa d autonomy for Kosovo received the highest legal
guarantee, while leaving it for the negotiations to establish the precise scope of the autonomy.
59. As regards the Kosovo side, their vision of the object of the negotiations was amply
described by Mr.Hyseni last we ek as “negotiations on whether Serbia will or will not accept
Kosovo as an independent State” 10. This account demonstrates whose approach has not allowed
to reach a negotiated settlement so far.
Conclusion: UDI contrary to resolution 1244
60. Mr. President, Members of the Court, now I come to conclusion.
61. First, resolution1244 does not affect th e territorial integrity of Serbia. The final
settlement under the resolution is to be a self-governing Kosovo within Serbia.
106
S/PV.5289, 24 Oct. 2005, p. 9.
10CR 2009/25, p. 9, para.15 (Hyseni). - 51 -
62. Second, the final settlement envisaged in the resolution is to be negotiated between the
parties and endorsed by the Security Council. No unilateral action can be regarded as such a final
settlement.
63. Third, the failure of the Ahtisaari Plan did not determine the final status process. The
interim period during which Kosovo is to enjoy autonomy within Serbia, being governed by the
international administration, is still ongoing. Resolution 1244 remains in force in its entirety.
64. Therefore, no institution has a right to unilaterally declare independence of Kosovo.
65. Accordingly, the Russian Federation r espectfully submits that the UDI was not in
accordance with resolution 1244 of the Security Council.
66. Mr. President, Members of the Court, I have demonstrated that the Unilateral Declaration
of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo contravenes both
general international law and Security Council resolu tion1244. It is thus not in accordance with
international law.
67. And my last remark, Mr. President. We often hear that international law is not law, or it
allows exceptions, or else that everything that may be achieved by might will automatically be
accepted as right. Mr.President, this is a case par excellence to show that international law does
matter.
Thank you for your kind attention.
The PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Your Excellency Mr.KirillGevorgian. I shall
now give the floor to Ms Päivi Kaukoranta to make the oral statement on behalf of Finland.
Ms KAUKORANTA:
1. Mr. President, Members of the Court, on beha lf of Finland I am honoured to take part in
these proceedings. We are convinced that the advisory opinion will contribute to the stability and
security on the Balkans and that the future of both States ⎯ Serbia and Kosovo ⎯ will be based on
friendly relations and integration in the European Union. Let me say a few introductory words.
The position of Finland in this case has been se t out in our Written Statement of 16April2009.
The legal status of Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence of 17February2008 should be
determined by situating it in the long process that began with the unilateral changes in Kosovo’s - 52 -
constitutional status and the violent break-up of th e Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The
Declaration, for its part, was not regulated through an y detailed rules of international law. It was a
political act with a certain history. However, as the Arbitration Commission on the Former
108
Yugoslavia has stated, the emergence of statehood is “a question of fact” . Once the negotiations
on Kosovo’s future had ended in a stalemate and the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of
Kosovo had transformed themselves into representa tives of the people of the province, the law
must take cognizance of the situation. It must, I suggest, recognize that history as leading up to the
creation of a new State.
2. Mr.President, it is impossible to read the facts accumulating at least since the1989
revocation of Kosovo’s autonomy and the 1991 unofficial referendum in which the Kosovo
Albanians voted overwhelmingly for independence and leading up to the ethnic cleansing of
Kosovo Albanians in 1999 as anything else than an indication of the total inability or unwillingness
of the Yugoslav Government to create the kind of conditions of internal self-determination of
Kosovo Albanians to which international law entitles them. Of course, as many have reminded the
Court, the law attaches great importance to the princi ple of territorial integrity of States. But that
principle is not determining in this case, as my colleague Professor Koskenniemi will argue in his
presentation.
3. In the Frontier Dispute case in 1986 this Court observed in an African context that the
principle of uti possidetis was based on the need of avoiding “fratricidal struggles” (Frontier
Dispute (Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1986 , p. 565, para. 20) . In the
territory of the former Yugoslavia those struggles had already been under way since 1991-1992,
spreading to Kosovo in late 1998 and early 1999. In the case of Prosecutor v. Milutinović, the
Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia determined that the
crimes that had been committed there included “hun dreds of murders, several sexual assaults, and
109
the forcible transfer and deportati on of hundreds of thousands of people” . In Kosovo, the
territorial order had broken down, and it had done so owing to actions taken or supported by the
108
Conference on Yugoslavia, Arbitration Committee, Opinion No. 1, XXXI ILM (1992), p. 1495.
10International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaProsecutor v. Milutinovi ć et al , Judgement of
26 Feb. 2009, para. 1172, Vol. 3 of 4. - 53 -
institutions of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia. In these circumstances, it is
necessary to create conditions in which the comm unities of Kosovo can finally live in peace and
justice. The years of the wars in Yugoslavia were also a period of the fall of the Berlin wall, the
emergence of a new consensus in Europe and th e world on the need to respect human rights and
fundamental freedoms. Against this background, th e facts that culminated in the Declaration of
Independence of 17February can only be read in one way: as the emergence of the State of
Kosovo.
4. Our statement is in two parts. I will fi rst say a few words about how international law
lacks any mechanical rule on the attainment of statehood and how, instead, it takes account of the
political facts leading up to the Declaration of Independence. I will show how this is supported by
the locus classicus on the law on self-determination, a case of great importance to my country, the
Aaland Islands case. My colleague ProfessorKoskenniemi will thereafter apply the law to the
Kosovo situation, as it appears under the modern law of self-determination.
I. THERE IS NO MECHANICALLY APPLICABLE RULE ON THE ATTAINMENT OF STATEHOOD
5. Mr. President, the opponents of the lawful ness of the Declaration of Independence attack
the view that the process leading to the independence of Kosovo is sui generis and must be
assessed and adjudged as such. They say that intern ational law must be applied consistently and
globally and that to direct attention to what is special in the Kosovo situation is appeal to an
exception to move from law to politics, arbitrary and conducive to risks to peace and stability.
6. With respect, this position, superficially app ealing in its apparent respect for legality, is
altogether beside the point and in fact relies on what it seems to deny. The argument about the
special nature of Kosovo’s process to independence does not at all deny the need of consistency or
stability but is based on those concerns. A lasting outcome must take full account of the history of
the Balkan populations, including their relations in the recent years. Serbia and its supporters have
been trying to avoid the examination of this hist ory by giving the impression that an absolute and
inflexible rule ⎯ the rule on territorial integrity ⎯ decides the matter mechanically, as a kind of
trump card. But this is wrong. We agree with Serb ia that the matter must be resolved by reference
to legal rules and principles. The Montevideo criteria of statehood, as well as the principles of - 54 -
territorial integrity and self-determination are, how ever, of a general character. They cannot be
mechanically applied but must be weighed against e ach other for their relevance to the facts of this
case. Serbia, too, stresses that the matter will requi re “an examination that entails both factual and
legal elements” 110. It could hardly be otherwise. And a balanced assessment of those facts accepts
the Declaration of Independence and dismisses the alternative possibility of return to the status quo.
7. It has become one of the well-entrenched principles of twentieth century international and
public law that statehood emerges from fact. Accord ingly, the effects of recognition, as affirmed
by the Arbitration Commission of the Conference on Yugoslavia ⎯ so-called Badinter
111
Commission ⎯ are not constitutive but “purely declaratory” . There is no difference between the
mother State and others here. Statehood is not a gift that is mercifully given by others; it emerges
from the new entity itself, its will and power to exis t as a State. In the words of the great French
public lawyer Carré de Malberg:
“la formation initiale de l’Etat, comme aussi sa première organisation, ne peuvent être
considérées que comme un pur fait, qui n’est susceptible d’être classé dans aucune 112
catégorie juridique, car ce fait n’est point gouverné par des principes de droit” .
To think otherwise would be to subsume the birth of States to the discretion of other States. But
which State accepts that its statehood is a grant by others, given in reward for compliance with
some rule? No State, I suggest. For every State, its statehood is sui generis, and dependent on its
own history and power, not on the discretion of othe rs, or the way geography may have situated it
in one place rather than another. As Judge Dillard pointed out in the Western Sahara case, “[i]t is
for the people to determine the destiny of the territory and not the territory the destiny of the
people” ( Western Sahara, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1975 , separate opinion of
Judge Dillard, p. 122).
8. Mr. President, there are some facts that can be assessed by mechanical application of rules
and other cases where many rules seem prima facie applicable and require careful attention to the
facts of the situation. Or in other words, there is a difference between distributing parking tickets
and legal assessment of a declaration of independence. In the former case, there is no need to
110
Written Comments of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, para. 44.
11Conference on Yugoslavia, Arbitration Committee, Opinion No. 1, XXXI ILM (1992), p. 1495.
11Raymond Carré de Malberg, Contribution à la théorie générale de l’Etat spécialement d’après des données
fournies par le droit constitutionnel français (2 vols., Paris, Sirey, 1920-1922), II, 490. - 55 -
examine the particularities. The type of car, or where it came from, are facts ⎯ but legally
irrelevant. The rule of “no parking” applies m echanically because what is being regulated is a
matter of routine: everyday cases that repeat themselves in the millions. Independence is not like
that. Here there is no routine ⎯ a recent history of the declarations of independence lists only
“more than one hundred cases”, each one distinguished historically, politically and factually from
the others 11. And here the differences are not irrelevant but at the heart of the statehood of each
entity. A State is a State because it is special, not because it has come about by some procedural
routine or some mechanical criterion. This is what those who attack the sui generis view appear to
deny. As if deciding on statehood were like distri buting parking tickets. Let me just take one
example.
9. The opponents of Kosovo’s independen ce suggest that the “Provisional Institutions” did
not possess competence to declare independence. Fi rst, the Declaration was not issued by the
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government but it was voted upon and signed by the
representatives of the people of Kosovo acting as a constituting power, pouvoir constituant .
Second, such contention suggests as if there were a rule to lay out which institutions may and
which may not declare independence. The independence of my country, Finland, for example, was
declared by a Parliament that was an organ of an autonomous part of the Russian empire in
December1917. From the perspective of Russian law, this was blatantly ultra vires. But, as
confirmed by the recognitions in due course, that was no obstacle to Finnish independence.
Furthermore, declarations issued earlier by Sl ovenia and Croatia were not regarded by the
international community as prohibited by internatio nal law, even though they were made without
prior authorization by the Socialist Federal Repub lic of Yugoslavia. A first declaration emerges
virtually always from a domestic illegality; internationally, it is simply a political fact. But
international law does intervene later, to assess th e fact by reference to overriding concerns of
peace and stability, on the principles of territorial integrity, human rights and self-determination.
10. Mr. President, let me now say a few word s on the two important reports presented to the
Council of the League of Nations in the Aaland Islands question in 1920 and in 1921. As is well
113
David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, Harvard University Press, 2007, p. 20. - 56 -
known, the question relates to a dispute between Fi nland and Sweden as to whether the inhabitants
of the Åland Islands, an archipelago in the Baltic Sea, were allowed to choose between remaining
under Finnish sovereignty and being incorporated in the Kingdom of Sweden. The Committee of
Jurists appointed by the League Council stated th at the principle of self-determination of peoples
comes into play in situations where
“the State is not yet fully formed or because it is undergoing transformation or
dissolution, the situation is obscure or uncertain from the legal point of view, and will
not become clear until the period of devel opment is completed and a definite new
situation, which is normal in respect to territorial sovereignty, has been
established” 114.
11. The Committee acknowledged that minority protection by way of an extensive grant of
liberty was a compromise solution where, for one reason or another, self-determination could not
be accorded a complete recognition. Most impor tantly, however, it acknowledged that there were
cases where minority protection could not be regarded as sufficient. In the words of the
Commission of Rapporteurs appointed by the Council to recommend a programme of action in
view of the Jurists’ report:
“The separation of a minority from the State of which it forms a part and its
incorporation in another State can only be considered as an altogether exceptional
solution, a last resort when the State lack s either the will or the power to enact and
apply just and effective guarantees.” 115
In this case the Commission concluded that the Åland Islanders had neither been persecuted nor
oppressed and that there was no justification for a separation.
12. Mr.President, already in the Aaland Islands case, the locus classicus of the law on
self-determination, the eventuality was foreseen th at persecution and oppression, combined with a
situation of “abnormality”, such as “the formation, transformation and dismemberment of States as
a result of revolutions and wars” 116, might entitle a minority population to secession. This was
117
thereafter reiterated by the Canadian Supreme Court in the case Secession of Quebec . Similarly,
114Report of the International Committee of Jurists entruste d by the Council of the League of Nations with the
task of giving an advisory opinion upon the legal aspect s of the Aaland Islands Question, League of NationOfficial
Journal, Special Supplement, No. 3, Oct. 1920, p. 6.
115Report submitted to the Council of the League of Nati ons by the Commission of Rapporteurs, League of
Nations, doc. B.7. 21/68/106, 1921, p. 28.
116Report of the International Committee of Jurists entruste d by the Council of the League of Nations with the
task of giving an advisory opinion upon the legal aspect s of the Aaland Islands Question, League of NationOfficial
Journal, Special Supplement, No. 3, Oct. 1920, p. 6.
117Reference re Secession of Quebec, [1998], 2 SCR., p. 217, 20 Aug. 1998. - 57 -
in the present case, the Court is called upon to weigh the facts pertaining as against the criteria of
statehood, and the principles of territorial inte grity and self-determination as they are understood
today.
Mr.President, with your permission, I w ill now give the floor to my colleague
Professor Koskenniemi.
Mr.KOSKENNIEMI: Mr.President, I am delighted to address this Court again as the
representative of my country Finland.
II.S ELF DETERMINATION AS THE GOVERNING
PRINCIPLE IN THE CASE OF K OSOVO
13. We have stressed the limited and open-e nded nature of the law governing statehood. In
this regard, the formulation of the request posed to the Court was perhaps unfortunate: “Is the
unilateral declaration of independence by the Pr ovisional Institutions of Self-Government of
Kosovo in accordance with international law?” Th is suggests the presence of precise rules of
international law regulating matte rs such as the making of independence declarations. But there
are no such rules. No treaty, no custom regulates the matter. No international law rule gave the
Finnish autonomy organs in December 1917 the comp etence to declare independence. This is the
case of every single declaration of independence we know of. A declaration is simply a fact, or the
endpoint of an accumulation of facts. Just lik e possession of territory, population or government
are facts. There is ⎯ as MadamKaukoranta pointed out ⎯ no rule on how States are born. But
once the requisite facts are there, the law cannot beoblivious to them. There is a brief, formally
correct response that may be given to the General Assembly’s request: namely, that the
Declaration was in accordance with international law.
14. And yet, the absence of such a rule might not seem the end of the matter. Should the
Court deem it necessary to address the significance of a declaration in more detail, we would like to
add the following.
15. In the Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries case some years ago, this Court observed, in a
situation where it had recognized that there were no detailed rules on the limits of the territorial sea,
as follows: - 58 -
“It does not at all follow that, in th e absence of rules having the technically
precise character alleged by the United Kingdom . . ., the delimitation undertaken . . .
is not subject to certain principles which ma ke it possible to judge as to its validity
under international law” ( Fisheries (United Kingdom v. Norway), Judgment,
I.C.J. Reports 1951, p. 132).
From that point the Court went on to examine the facts of the case by reference to what it later
chose to call “equitable principles” ⎯ precisely an assessment of the particularities ⎯ including in
that early case, the interests of Norwegian fishermen “peculiar to a region, the reality and
importance of which are clearly evidenced by a long usage” ( ibid., p. 133). In a parallel way, the
fact that there are no mechanical rules on declarations of independence may not make it impossible
to judge what their effect should be. Such judg ment must only be based on a balanced assessment
of the relevant facts, including ⎯ as the Court then stated ⎯ the needs of the communities as can
be detected from their histories.
16. Now, Serbia and its supporters claim that th e rule of territorial integrity and consent of
the parent State regulate the process of independence. But surely this is both conceptually and
historically wrong? Was the United States born out of a legal process that peaked in the consent of
Britain? Or Russia or Germany? Venezuela, Algeria or Bangladesh ⎯ or indeed Serbia? Did any
of the republics formerly part of the SFRY emerge from a process that respected the integrity of the
mother State or out of the consent of the latter? They did not. There are around 200 States in the
world and around 200histories of State-em ergence each of which is different ⎯ it tempts me to
say sui generis ⎯ though each is also capable of being assessed under the old Montevideo criteria:
118
territory, population, effective government, you all know those . But they of course do not apply
mechanically. China has a population of 1.3billion, Tuvalu less than 12,500. There are States
with huge territories and States with very sm all ones and their governmental capacities vary
enormously.
17. The supporters of Kosovo’s independen ce, including Spain today, claim that the
supporters of the legality of the Declaration seek to replace law by what they call “politics”. The
Court has already heard parallel accusations in many earlier cases and they have given it occasion
to distinguish, for example, between decisions ex aequo et bono ⎯ something that does involve
11According to these criteria, the State as a person of international law should possess the following
qualifications: (a)a permanent population;(b)a defined territory(c)government; and (d)capacity to enter into
relations with other States. - 59 -
political compromises ⎯ and what it chose to call equity infra legem, the case where the rule itself
calls for the appreciation of circumstances 119. This is how the Montevideo criteria, territorial
integrity and self-determination, operate: they la y out broad criteria to appreciate the facts on the
ground, what is and what is not relevant . The Serbian Written Comments acknowledge the
significance of the Court’s jurisprudence in this respect 120. We agree that this, and only this is
needed here: neither mechanical rule applicati on, nor recourse to an exception, or indeed to
politics, but to the application of the relevant legal principles ⎯ including those of territorial
integrity and self-determination ⎯ in a way, in a way Mr. President, that is equitable in the
circumstances. The case is not, after all, about distributing parking tickets.
18. Mr.President, Serbia and its supporters suggest that the principle of territorial integrity
and consent of the parent State disqualifies the declaration of independence as conferring statehood
on Kosovo. Nobody would deny that the principle of territorial integrity is well established in
international law. But, as many have already not ed here, the principle does not at all concern the
relation between a State and an entity seeking self-determination. Under their very formulation and
raison d’être instruments such as the Friendly Relations Declaration, from 1970 121, and the
122
Helsinki Final Act of 1975 deal with inter-State relations and in particular the duty of other
States not to intervene in internal political processes. Let me quote the 1970 Declaration. It lays
out: “the principle that States shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of
force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State”. States shall refrain in
their international relations . Nowhere about other entities. International law does contain rules
relating to individuals today: those rules appear in the fields of human rights, economic relations
and the environment. But rules about sovereignt y or territorial integrity are not among those—
and we understand well why. It w ould be absurd to claim that in ternational law takes any position
119North Sea Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany/Denmark; Federal Republic of
Germany/Netherlands), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1969, p. 48, para. 88.
120Written Comments of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, para. 128.
121
Declaration on Principles of International Law con cerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations , United Nations General Assembly resolution2625 (XXV),
24 Oct. 1970.
122
Conference on Security and Co-operati on in Europe, Final Act, Helsinki 1975,
http://www.osce.org/documents/mcs/1975/08/4044_en.pdf (4 Dec. 2009). - 60 -
beyond respect of human rights and non-violence in respect of the agendas of domestic groups or
federalist movements, for example.
19. It may be said that as a general principle, territorial integrity nevertheless lays out a
general value ⎯ the value of unharmed statehood ⎯ that international law seeks to protect. But in
that case it should be weighed against counterva iling values, among them the right of oppressed
people to seek self-determination including by way of independence. Again, it is the factual
context that should decide which value should we igh heaviest. The relevant facts we all know
from the Milutinović case — and I quote from the case:
“[T]he Trial Chamber is satisfied that there was a broad campaign of violence
directed against the Kosovo Albanian population during the course of the NATO air
strikes conducted by forces under the control of the FRY and Serbian authorities . . .”
The Chamber goes on, and I quote again:
“In all of the 13 municipalities the Chamber has found that forces of the FRY
and Serbia deliberately expelled Kosovo Albanians from their homes, either by
ordering them to leave, or by creating an at mosphere of terror in order to effect their
departure. As these people left their homes and moved either within Kosovo or
towards or across its borders, many of th em continued to be threatened, robbed,
mistreated, and otherwise abused. In many places men were separated from women
and children, their vehicles stolen or destroyed, houses deliberately set on fire, money
was extorted 123m them, and they were fo rced to relinquish their personal identity
documents.”
20. This campaign, as is well known, caused the departure of over 700,000Kosovo
Albanians in the period between March and June 1999 during which, also, many documented cases
of killing, sexual assault and intentional destructi on of civil infrastructure and religious sites
occurred. The Security Council recognized the gr avity of the situation in resolution 1244, as did
the ICTY later. An international security and civilian presence was set up and has continued to
govern or supervise Kosovo for a decade. What can, in such conditi ons, be the worth of territorial
integrity? As I have stated, it does express a value of protecting the State. But is it the State that
needs protection in this case? Even if the principle does have relevance, it cannot be mechanically
applicable. We are not dealing with parking viol ations but historical facts of concern to large
populations.
12International Criminal Tribuna l for the former YugoslProsecutor v. Milutinović et al., Judgement of
26 Feb. 2009, para. 1156 (Vol. 2 of 4). - 61 -
21. The facts leading up to the Declaration of Independence of 17February strikingly
illustrate the situation, mentioned by the Commission of Rapporteurs in the Aaland Islands case
where “the State lacks either the will or the power to enact and apply just and effective guarantees”.
Nothing was done on the Serbian side during the Ahtisaari negotiations in 2006-2007 or the later
Troika period to alleviate the concerns Kosovo Albanians had for the return of a situation
resembling the one in which the Miloševi ć régime had already once removed the autonomy of the
province. Indeed, in 2006, in the middle of the in ternational status negotiations, Serbia unilaterally
adopted a new Constitution which astonishingly insisted that Serbian State bodies in Kosovo
should “uphold and protect the state interests of Se rbia in Kosovo and Metohija in all internal and
124
foreign political relations” . Kosovo Albanians were ineligible to participate in this process.
22. Members of the Contact Group ⎯ representatives of Britain, France, Germany, Italy,
United States and Russia ⎯ agreed on the impossibility of a return to any status quo ante. Already
the Rambouillet Accords had stated, as we have heard today, that the “final settlement for Kosovo”
125
was to be based on the famous statement, and I quote: “will of the people” . No concept of
mutual consent was incorporated in the Accords. It is true that, as our colleague from Russia said a
moment ago, no people of Kosovo is identified in the Rambouillet Accords. But, of course, the
story does not end there. In January 2006, just before President Ahtisaari began his 14-month-long
effort to seek a negotiated solution, the Contact Group had occasion to specify what this meant.
Let me quote them— the Contact Group. They ag reed, and this is a verbatim quote, “that the
settlement needs, inter alia, to be acceptable to the people of Kosovo” 12. “Acceptable to the
people of Kosovo.” Everything is here ⎯ including the identification of the people of Kosovo.
That formulation was agreed by all concerned ⎯ including the representative of Russia. In view of
124
Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, 2006, preamble, http://www.srbija.gov.rs/extfile/en/29554/
constitution_of_serbia.pdf (4 Dec. 2009).
125
Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo, 23 Feb. 1999, Chap. 8, Art. I (3):
“Three years after the entry into force of this Agreement, an international meeting shall be
convened to determine a mechanism for a final settlement for Kosovo, on the basis of the will of the
people, opinions of releva nt authorities, each Party’s effortgarding the implementation of this
Agreement, and the Helsinki Final Act, and to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the
implementation of this Agreement and to consider proposals by any Party for additional measures.”
(S/1999/648).
12Press Release, 3Ja n. 2006, para. 7, http://www.unosek.org/docref/fevrier/ STATEMENT%20BY%
20THE%20CONTACT%20GROUP%20ON%20THE%20FUTURE%20OF%20KOSOVO%20-%20Eng.pdf
(4 Dec. 2009). - 62 -
what was known of the attitude of the people of Kosovo, it could only mean recognition of
independence as the fallback if no other arrangement could be found.
23. Those who deny the applicability of self-determination in this case do this by making a
familiar distinction ⎯ namely, the distinction between the case of independence under colonial
subjugation or alien domination ⎯ borrowing language from the 1970Friendly Relations
Declaration ⎯ and Kosovo on the other hand. Familiar di stinction, I say. But how strong is it?
What good reason of practice or principle might there be to limit the right to secession to
decolonization? None. As MadamKaukoranta observed, already in the Aaland Islands case, well
before the decolonization period, the Committee of Jurists and the Commission of Rapporteurs
agreed that secession was thinkable when the State was “undergoing transformation or dissolution”
and cannot or will not give, as it put it, “effective guarantees for protection”. It was this traditional
position, and not any new law, that became operative during decolonization. It was this law that
the Supreme Court of Canada had in mind when it stated “when a people is blocked from the
meaningful exercise of its right of self-determina tion internally, it is entitled, as a last resort, to
127
exercise it by secession” . A broad body of scholarship today addresses such a “qualified right of
secession” 12. I suggest, however, that instead of us, here, imagining a new rule, it is better to think
of this as part of the traditional law of self-determination that was always to be balanced against
territorial integrity and contained the possibility of its application, as the Aaland Islands case
demonstrates, through an external solution.
24. But, of course, the Court is not called upon to rule on the validity of any such principle in
abstracto. All it is asked to do is to assess the legality of a declaration of independence as part of a
history that includes grave oppression by the FRY and Serbian authorities. This history also
includes the unilateral adoption by Serbia of a Constitution in 2006 that sought to prejudice the
result of the status talks and it includes the deadlo ck in the status negotiations as reported by the
Special Envoy of the Secretary-General. In President Ahtisaari’s words “[n]o amount of additional
talks, whatever the format, will overcome this impasse” 129. Ahtisaari was not alone in this
127
Reference Re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 SCR 217, para. 134.
128
See especially Raic, Statehood and Self-Determination, 313-332.
12Report of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-Genera l on Kosovo’s future status, S/2007/168, 26Mar. 2007,
para. 3. - 63 -
assessment. It was reiterated by the Troika re presentatives from the European Union, the United
States and the Russian Federation after four months of further negotiations. The Troika concluded
that the parties were unable to reach an agreement 130.
25. Against this, Serbia and its supporters now suggest that the negotiations should be
continued. But, of course, the duty to negotiate cannot be dependent on one party’s assessment that
not all avenues have been exhausted. One part y cannot possess indefinite right of veto over a
permanent solution. We now have the clear stat ement by the Special Envoy of the United Nations
Secretary-General, endorsed by the Secretary-Ge neral himself, that there was no prospect of
progress in further negotiation and that independence was the only viable solution. Who could be
in a better position to determine this? In putting forward his proposal for “internationally
supervised independence”, the Special Envoy was fulfilling his mandate. Let me quote the Terms
of Reference that were given to him. They stated:
“the peace and duration of the future status process will be determined by the Special
Envoy on the basis of consultations with the Secretary-General taking into account the
co-operation of the parties and the situation on the ground”.
“[W]ill be determined by the Special Envoy . . .” Now, the feasibility of negotiations is a matter of
political judgment and not judicial determination. Surely best placed to determine this is the chief
negotiator, who, as we all know, also happened to receive the Nobel Peace prize for brokering
peace not only in Kosovo but in many places, including Namibia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Aceh.
To suggest otherwise, or to hint at bias, as Se rbia has done, speaks more eloquently about Serbia’s
negotiating attitudes than anything otherwise produced in this case.
26. Mr. President, let me reiterate the main points of the Finnish argument.
⎯ First, there is no specific rule on declarations of independence. They must be seen as parts of
the history of State-building that international law regulates by general principles such as the
Montevideo criteria on statehood, non-use of force, territorial integrity, self-determination.
⎯ Second, in this specific case, the two prima faci e applicable principles are those of territorial
integrity and self-determination. Because territorial integrity only gove rns relations between
13Report of the European Union/United States/Russi an Federation Troika on Kosovo of 4Dec.2007,
S/2007/723, paras. 2 and 11. - 64 -
and not inside States, its power is limited to that of a general value of protecting existing States
that must be weighed against countervailing considerations.
⎯ Third, the most important countervailing consider ation is that of self-determination that has
always implied the possibility of secession in case the parent State is unable or unwilling to
give guarantees of internal protection. In view of the violent history of the break-up of the
SFRY and, in particular, the ethnic cleansing unde rtaken by or with the consent of Serbian
authorities, as well as the deadlock in the international status negotiations thereafter, the people
of Kosovo were entitled to constitute themselves as a State. This was achieved by the facts of
history and symbolized by the Declaration of Independence of 17 February 2008.
I thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Professor Koskenniemi.
This concludes the oral statement and comment s of Finland and brings to a close today’s
hearings. The Court will meet again tomorrow at 10a.m. when it will hear France, Jordan and
Norway. The Court is adjourned.
The Court rose at 12.50 p.m.
___________
Public sitting held on Tuesday 8 December 2009, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Owada, presiding, on the Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo (Request for advisory opinion submitted by the General Assembly of the United Nations)