The Registrar of the International Court of Justice, H.E. Mr. Philippe Couvreur, has decided to step down from his functions, with effect from 1 July 2019, after thirty-seven years of service to the C

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Press Release
Unofficial
No. 2019/4
15 February 2019
The Registrar of the International Court of Justice, H.E. Mr. Philippe Couvreur, has decided to step down from his functions, with effect from 1 July 2019, after thirty-seven years of service to the Court
THE HAGUE, 15 February 2019. H.E. Mr. Philippe Couvreur, Registrar of the International Court of Justice, has notified the Court of his decision to step down from his functions with effect from 1 July 2019. After thirty-seven years of dedicated service to the Court, including nearly twenty years as Registrar, Mr. Couvreur, who has reached the age of 67, has expressed the wish to bring forward the close of his third term of office, to take a well-deserved rest and to consider new professional horizons. The Court respects this wish and extends its most sincere appreciation for the invaluable contribution made by Mr. Couvreur to the work and functioning of the institution.
Having joined the Court in 1982 as special assistant to the Registrar and Deputy-Registrar, Mr. Couvreur rose to the rank of Secretary, then First Secretary of the Court in the Department of Legal Matters, of which he became Principal Legal Secretary in 1995. He was elected Registrar of the Court on 10 February 2000, re-elected on 8 February 2007, and again on 3 February 2014  making him the longest-serving Registrar in the history of the Court. During his three mandates, he has exercised his duties with consummate professionalism, skilfully discharging the multiple and wide-ranging responsibilities attached to the role of Registrar  in particular, in terms of providing judicial, diplomatic and administrative support to the Court. Since he joined the Court, Mr. Couvreur has actively participated in the handling of no less than 90 contentious cases and advisory opinions.
The Court will pay tribute to Mr. Couvreur at a ceremony to be announced at a later date.
Procedures are now being put in place to enable the Court to elect a new Registrar.
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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, second, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized
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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:
Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336)
Ms Joanne Moore, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)
Mr. Avo Sevag Garabet, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)