INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands
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Press Release
Unofficial
No. 2019/5
15 February 2019
Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 (Request for Advisory Opinion) The Court to deliver its Advisory Opinion on Monday 25 February 2019 at 3 p.m.
THE HAGUE, 15 February 2019. On Monday 25 February 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will deliver its Advisory Opinion in respect of the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965.
A public sitting will take place at 3 p.m. at the Peace Palace in The Hague, during which Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, President of the Court, will read out the Advisory Opinion.
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History of the proceedings
The history of the proceedings can be found in the Annual Report of the Court for 2017-2018 (paragraphs 272-281) and in Press Release No. 2018/44 of 6 September 2018, available on the Court’s website (www.icj-cij.org).
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Multimedia
The sitting will be streamed live and on demand (VOD) on the Court’s website (www.icj-cij.org/en/multimedia-index) as well as on UN Web TV, the United Nations online television channel. Still photographs of the sitting will be posted on the same day, on the ICJ website and the Court’s Twitter feed (@CIJ_ICJ). Selected high-resolution video footage (b-roll) of the event will be available for TV use on the Court’s website on the same day.
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All the photographs and videos made available to the media by the ICJ are free of charge and free of copyright for editorial, non-commercial use.
For information regarding the accreditation/admission procedures for this reading, as well as the video streaming options (low and high resolution) and practical information for the media, please see below.
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A. Admission procedures
Owing to the limited number of seats available in the Great Hall of Justice, priority access will be given to representatives of participants in the proceedings, and to members of the diplomatic corps.
1. Members of the diplomatic corps
The representatives of participants in the proceedings and members of the diplomatic corps will be informed shortly, by Note Verbale, of the measures taken to enable them to attend the reading. Due to the limited capacity of the Great Hall of Justice, only a restricted number of admission badges can be allocated.
2. Members of the public
A number of seats will be allocated to members of the public on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be no advance registration procedure, and admission requests submitted beforehand will not be considered.
3. Media representatives
Media representatives are subject to a compulsory online accreditation procedure, which will close at midnight on Wednesday 20 February 2019 (The Hague time). Requests submitted after this deadline will not be considered.
B. Further practical information for the media
1. Entry to the Peace Palace
The Press Room will be open from 1.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Accredited media representatives must bring with them their personal ID and press card. They are asked to arrive at the Peace Palace gates between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Only duly accredited individuals with valid identification will be permitted to enter the Peace Palace grounds.
2. Parking at the Peace Palace, satellite vehicles
No parking is allowed in the Peace Palace grounds apart from satellite vehicles. Media wishing to park satellite vehicles are requested to fill in the appropriate fields in the online accreditation form. Televised media wishing to broadcast the sitting live should contact the
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Information Department as soon as possible to make the necessary arrangements. Satellite vehicle technicians/drivers will be informed in due course of the access times for the Peace Palace grounds.
3. Access to the courtroom
Photographers and camera crews will only be permitted to enter the courtroom a few minutes before the start of the sitting. They will be accompanied by a member of the Information Department and must keep to the right-hand side of the room.
4. Press Room
The reading will be transmitted live on a large screen, in French and English, in a press room equipped with a shared Internet access (Wi-Fi, Ethernet). TV crews can connect to the Court’s PAL (HD and SD) and NTSC (SD) audio-visual system and radio reporters to the audio system.
5. Videos, still photographs
Video files (SD/MPEG2 and HD/MPEG4) and still photos produced by the Registry during the sitting on 25 February 2019 will be available free of charge, for non-commercial use, at the close of the session (to download, click on www.icj-cij.org/en/multimedia-index).
6. Other media services
For further practical information (on requests for interviews, TV stand-up positions, audio and video outputs available, etc.), please visit the Court’s website. Click on “Press Room”, and then on “Media Services”.
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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 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.
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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)
Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 (Request for Advisory Opinion) - The Court to deliver its Advisory Opinion on Monday 25 February 2019 at 3 p.m.