W RITTEN STATEMENT BY THE G OVERNMENT THE REPUBLIC OF SENEGAL
[Translation]
In its request to the International Court of Justice, by its resolution adopted on
8December2003, to urgently render an advisory opinion on the question of the “legal
consequences of the construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, the United
Nations General Assembly asked the Court to reply, from the standpoint of international law, to the
following question:
“What are the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall
being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including in and around East Jerusalem , as described in the report of the
Secretary-General, considering the rules and principles of international law, including
the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and relevant Security Council and
General Assembly resolutions?”
This request, based on the provisions of Article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations and
Article 65 of the Statute of the Court, constitutes the most recent addition to a long list of requests
for opinions from the General Assemb ly to the Court since the latte r’s establishment, a fact that
should dispel any possible doubt as to the Assembly ’s competence to approach the Court on this
occasion for an advisory opinion.
Moreover, the many opinions given by the Cour t over more than half a century have made a
substantial and effective contribution to th e articulation, interpretation and progressive
1
development of the rules of international law .
These two grounds amply justify the decision by the Government of Senegal strongly to
support the request from the United Nations General Assembly.
Other equally compelling substantive grounds reinforce the conviction of the Senegalese
Government that recourse to the Court for an opin ion would clarify, in terms of the obligation to
respect international law, a situation which, if a llowed to persist, would seriously jeopardize peace
in the region.
The substance of these grounds consists in the effective commission of serious breaches of
well-established rules and principles of international law relating to met hods of acquisition of
territory, the consequences of the exercise of terr itorial jurisdiction, respect for human rights such
as freedom of movement and economic, social and cu ltural rights, or compliance with the rules of
international humanitarian law, especially tho se contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention
of 1949 and its Additional Protocol No. 1 of 1977.
These serious breaches led to the adoption of resolutionA/ES-10/13 of 21October2003,
whereby the General Assembly, addressing the questi on of the construction of a wall by Israel in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, demanded that the Jewish State halt construction of the wall,
which is in departure of the Armistice Line of 1949 and thus seriously infringes relevant provisions
of international law.
1Mention should be made of the content of United Nati ons General Assembly resolution 171 (II), which as early
as 1947 stressed the “Need for greater use by the United Nations a nd its organs of the International Court of Justice.” In
the same resolution, the General Assembly stated “that it is . . . of paramount importance that the Court should be utilized
to the greatest practicable extent in th e progressive development of internationa l law, both in regard to legal issues
between States and in regard to constitutional interpretation”. - 2 -
It follows that, although the Jewish State has the right and duty to protect its people against
terrorist attacks, as recognized by the United Nations Secretary-General in his report on the
implementation by Israel of resolutionA/ES-10/13 of 21October2003, the construction of a wall
in Palestinian territory, on the basis of the existi ng plan, could not be undertaken without seriously
violating international law and gravely undermining the prospects for peace in the short or long
term.
The argument of the right to preventive self-d efence invoked by the Jewish State to justify
the construction of the wall, a project that relies on the confiscation of private Palestinian land or its
annexation through the incorporati on of Jewish settlements in large portions of the West Bank, is
tantamount in practice to an illegal annexation inasm uch as it is prohibited by the Charter of the
United Nations and the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War in the same way as the annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
For the aforementioned reasons, the Governme nt of Senegal hopes that the International
Court of Justice will render an opinion on the legal consequences of the construction of this wall.
(Signed) Absa Claude D IALLO .
For the Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs,
and, by delegation, the Ambassador, Secretary-General
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Written Statement by the Government of the Republic of Senegal [translation]