Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Niger) - The Court to hold public hearings from Monday 8 to Wednesday 17 October 2012

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928
Website: www.icj-cij.org

Press Release
Unofficial

No. 2012/14
22 March 2012

Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Niger)

The Court to hold public hearings from Monday 8 to

Wednesday 17 October 2012

THE HAGUE, 22March2012. The Internationa l Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal
judicial organ of the United Nations, will hol d public hearings in the case concerning the Frontier

Dispute (Burkina Faso/Niger) from Monday 8 to Wednesday 17 October 2012, at the Peace Palace
in The Hague, the seat of the Court.

The detailed schedule for these hearings, along with information regarding the accreditation
and admission procedures, will be distributed in due course.

History of the proceedings

On 20 July 2010, Burkina Faso and Niger jo intly submitted a frontier dispute between them
to the Court. By a joint letter dated 12 May 2010 and filed in the Registry on 20 July 2010, the two
States notified to the Court a Special Agreement signed in Niamey on 24February2009, which

entered into force on 20 November 2009. Under the terms of Article 1 of this Special Agreement,
the Parties have agreed to submit their frontier dispute to the Court.

Article 2 of the Special Agreement indets the subject of the dispute as follows:

“The Court is requested to:

1. determine the course of the boundary betw een the two countries in the sector from the
astronomic marker of Tong-Tong (l atitude 14° 25' 04" N; longitude 00° 12' 47" E) to the
beginning of the Botou bend (latitude 12° 36' 18" N; longitude 01° 52' 07" E);

2. place on record the Parties’ agreement on the results of the work of the Joint Technical Commission
on demarcation of the Burkina Faso-Niger boundary with regard to the following sectors:

(a) the sector from the heights of N’Gouma to the astronomic marker of Tong-Tong;

(b) the sector from the beginning of the Botou bend to the River Mekrou.” - 2 -

Article 7 of the Special Agreement, entitled “Judgment of the Court”, reads as follows:

“1. The Parties accept the Judgment ofthe Court given pursuant to th is Special Agreement as final and
binding upon them.

2. From the day on which the Judgment is rendered, the Parties shall have eighteen(18)months in

which to commence the work of demarcating the boundary.

3. In case of difficulty in the implementation of the Judgment, either Party may seise the Court
pursuant to Article 60 of its Statute.

4. The Parties request the Court to nominate, in its Judgment, three(3) experts to assist them in the
demarcation.”

Lastly, Article 10 contains the following “Special undertaking”:

“Pending the Judgment of the Court, the Par ties undertake to mainta in peace, security and
tranquillity among the populations of the two States in the frontier region, refraining from any act
of incursion into the disputed areas and organizing regular meetings of administrative officials and

the security services.

With regard to the creation of socio-economic infrastructure, the Parties undertake to hold
preliminary consultations prior to implementation.”

The Special Agreement was acco mpanied by an exchange of notes dated 29October and
2November2009 embodying the agreement betw een the two States on the delimited sectors of the
frontier.

By Order of 14September2010, the Court fixed 20April2011 and 20January2012 as the
respective time-limits for the filing of a Memorial and a Counter-Memorial by each of the Parties.
Those pleadings were duly filed within the time-limits thus fixed.

*

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
It was established by the United Nations Char ter in June1945 and began its activities in
April1946. 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,
second, to give advisory opinions on legal questi ons referred to it by duly authorized United

Nations organs and agencies of the system. The Court is composed of 15judges elected for a
nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. It is
assisted by a Registry, its international secretariat, whose activities are both judicial and diplomatic,
as well as administrative. The official languages of the Court are French and English.

The ICJ, a court open only to States for cont entious 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 - 3 -

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY, an ad hoc court created by the
Security Council), the International Criminal Court (ICC, the first permanent international criminal

court established by treaty, which does not belong to the United Nations system), the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, an independent judicial body composed of Lebanese and international
judges, which is not a United Nations tribunal an d does not form part of the Lebanese judicial
system), or the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA, an institution founded in 1899, which is

independent of the United Nations).

___________

Information Department:

Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336)
Mr. Boris Heim, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)
Ms Joanne Moore, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)