Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v. United Arab Emirates) - Conclusion of the public hearings on the request for the indicati

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
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Press Release
Unofficial
No. 2019/19
9 May 2019
Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v. United Arab Emirates) Conclusion of the public hearings on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by the United Arab Emirates The Court to begin its deliberation
THE HAGUE, 9 May 2019. The public hearings on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by the United Arab Emirates in the case concerning Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v. United Arab Emirates) were concluded today.
The Court will now begin its deliberation.
During the hearings, which opened on Tuesday 7 May 2019 at the Peace Palace, the seat of the Court, the delegation of the United Arab Emirates was led by H.E. Ms Hissa Abdullah Ahmed Al-Otaiba, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as Agent. The delegation of the State of Qatar was led by Mr. Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Legal Adviser to H.E. the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dean of the College of Law, Qatar University, as Agent.
The Court’s decision on the request for the indication of provisional measures will be delivered at a public sitting, the date of which will be announced in due course.
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Requests of the Parties
At the end of the hearings, the Agents of the Parties made the following requests to the Court:
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For the United Arab Emirates:
“The United Arab Emirates respectfully requests that the Court order that:
(i) Qatar immediately withdraw its Communication submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination pursuant to Article 11 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on 8 March 2018 against the UAE and take all necessary measures to terminate consideration thereof by that Committee;
(ii) Qatar immediately desist from hampering the UAE’s attempts to assist Qatari citizens, including by un-blocking in its territory access to the website by which Qatari citizens can apply for a permit to return to the UAE;
(iii) Qatar immediately stop its national bodies and its State-owned, controlled and funded media outlets from aggravating and extending the dispute and making it more difficult to resolve by disseminating false accusations regarding the UAE and the issues in dispute before the Court; and
(iv) Qatar refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute before the Court or make it more difficult to resolve.”
For the State of Qatar:
“Qatar respectfully asks the Court to reject the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by the United Arab Emirates.”
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History of the proceedings
The history of the proceedings can be found in paragraphs 233-244 of the Court’s Annual Report for 2017-2018 and in the press releases Nos. 2018/40 of 1 August 2018 and 2019/12 of 25 March 2019, available on the Court’s website (www.icj-cij.org).
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Note: The Court’s press releases are prepared by its Registry for information purposes only and do not constitute official documents. The complete verbatim records of the hearings held from 7 to 9 May 2019 are published on the website of the Court (www.icj-cij.org).
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter in June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York. The Court has a twofold role: first, to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States (its judgments have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned); and,
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second, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and agencies of the system. The Court is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. Independent of the United Nations Secretariat, it is assisted by a Registry, its own international secretariat, whose activities are both judicial and diplomatic, as well as administrative. The official languages of the Court are French and English. Also known as the “World Court”, it is the only court of a universal character with general jurisdiction.
The ICJ, a court open only to States for contentious proceedings, and to certain organs and institutions of the United Nations system for advisory proceedings, should not be confused with the other  mostly criminal  judicial institutions based in The Hague and adjacent areas, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC, the only permanent international criminal court, which was established by treaty and does not belong to the United Nations system), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, an international judicial body with an independent legal personality, established by the United Nations Security Council upon the request of the Lebanese Government and composed of Lebanese and international judges), the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT, mandated to take over residual functions from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda), the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (an ad hoc judicial institution which has its seat in The Hague), or the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA, an independent institution which assists in the establishment of arbitral tribunals and facilitates their work, in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1899).
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Information Department:
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