Professional Documents
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Guía CIJ (Final)
Guía CIJ (Final)
Guía CIJ (Final)
President: Tomás Villadiego Maldonado
Vice-president: Natalia Andrea Poveda Díaz
E-mail: icj.evermun@hotmail.com
● Committee: International Court of Justice (ICJ).
● Topic: Case of Argentina against Israel for violation of sovereignty.
Profile and words of the president
gave me the experience and enough knowledge to accept this great
challenge.
It's a strong pleasure for me to receive you as a part of this committee,
expecting first of all a great interest from all of the delegates, and I'll make my
best to create a comfortable environment where everyone can feel able to
speak and express their ideas, and also building an space for you to grow and
develop on a greater scale all of your abilities that you require for this exercise.
As your Vice-President, I hope that you see me as an ally and support before
you, and to be able to solve any restlessness you have about the committee,
but also I expect your absolute commitment to carry out a pleasant process
between the delegates and the chair.
Thank you for your attention.
Objectives
General:
The main objective of this committee is that the delegates study and execute
the different leadership positions given to them, through the analysis of
socio-political conflicts that have generated great controversy in a historical
level.
The above will be carried out through different debates, where each delegate
can have the opportunity to express their ideas and look for possible solutions to
the problem that was presented. This has the purpose of developing the
different skills of the delegates, generating an improvement in the
argumentation of the different ideas and positions they have built, and for them
to acquire the knowledge and the ability to interpret laws established by
different governments throughout history.
Specific:
1. Create awareness on some of the consequences that were unleashed
because of the Second World War, taking into account it's political,
social and religious impact.
2. Place the delegates in a whole different historical context for them to
recognize and interpret the international laws and politics of that time
giving a final judgement, which is intended to be fair to mitigate the
possible risks of that conflict, giving them the freedom and the chance
to chance the course of history.
Committee description
The International Court of Justice is the main judicial body of the United Nations
based in the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Likewise, it is in charge
of failing for or against a state because of a legal conflict; Therefore, it gives
advisory opinions on issues that may be submitted to it by specialized UNITED
NATIONS bodies or institutions.
It comprises 15 judges who remain for a period of nine years, elected by the
General Assembly of the United Nations and the Security Council; Each
candidate must obtain the absolute majority in both organs.
In addition, judges may be re-elected; But every three years one third of the
court is submitted to a new election to ensure continuity; However, in the event
that a member dies or waives the position, an extraordinary session will be held
to select another to cover the vacancy for the remainder of the term.
On the other hand, as for the presidency of the Court, the members of this ones
are elected every three years by means of a secret ballot.
argument on behalf of the government he/she represents and lodges the
submissions. In general, whenever a formal act is to be done by the
government represented, it is done by the agent. Agents are sometimes
assisted by co-agents, deputy agents or assistant agents and always have
counsel or advocates, whose work they coordinate, to assist them in the
preparation of the pleadings and the delivery of oral argument. Since there is
no special International Court of Justice Bar, there are no conditions that have
to be fulfilled by counsel or advocates to enjoy the right of pleading before it,
the only exception being that they must have been appointed by a
government to do so.
Proceedings may be instituted in one of two ways:
1. Through the notification of a special agreement: this document, which is
bilateral in character, can be lodged with the Court by either or both of
the States parties to the proceedings. A special agreement must
indicate the subject of the dispute and the parties . Since there is neither
an “applicant” State nor a “respondent” State, in the Court’s
publications their names are separated by an oblique stroke at the end
of the official title of the case, Benin/Niger.
2. By means of an application: the application, which is unilateral in
character, is submitted by an applicant State against a respondent
State. It is intended for communication to the latter State and the Rules
of Court contain stricter requirements with regard to its content. In
addition to the name of the party against which the claim is brought and
the subject of the dispute, the applicant State must, as far as possible,
indicate briefly on what basis - a treaty or a declaration of acceptance
of compulsory jurisdiction - it claims that the Court has jurisdiction, and
must succinctly state the facts and grounds on which its claim is based.
At the end of the official title of the case the names of the two parties
are separated by the abbreviation v. (for the Latin versus), Nicaragua v.
Colombia.
Contentious proceedings include a written phase, in which the parties file and
exchange pleadings containing a detailed statement of the points of fact and
of law on which each party relies, and an oral phase consisting of public
hearings at which agents and counsel address the Court.
After the oral proceedings the Court deliberates and then delivers its judgment
at a public sitting. The judgment is final, binding on the parties to a case and
without appeal (at the most it may be subject to interpretation or, upon the
discovery of a new fact, revision). Any judge wishing to do so may append an
opinion to the judgment.
By signing the Charter, a Member State of the United Nations undertakes to
comply with the decision of the Court in any case to which it is a party. Since,
furthermore, a case can only be submitted to the Court and decided by it if the
parties have in one way or another consented to its jurisdiction over the case, it
is rare for a decision not to be implemented. A State which considers that the
other side has failed to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a
judgment rendered by the Court may bring the matter before the Security
Council, which is empowered to recommend or decide upon measures to be
taken to give effect to the judgment.
The procedure described above is the normal procedure. However, the course
of the proceedings may be modified by incidental proceedings. The most
common incidental proceedings are preliminary objections, which are raised to
challenge the competence of the Court to decide on the merits of the case
(the respondent State may contend, for example, that the Court lacks
jurisdiction or that the application is inadmissible). The matter is one for the
Court itself to decide. Then there are provisional measures, interim measures
which can be requested by the applicant State if it considers that the rights that
form the subject of its application are in immediate danger. A third possibility is
that a State may request permission to intervene in a dispute involving other
States if it considers that it has an interest of a legal nature in the case, which
might be affected by the decision made. The Statute also makes provision for
instances when a respondent State fails to appear before the Court, either
because it totally rejects the Court’s jurisdiction or for any other reason. Failure
by one party to appear does not prevent the proceedings from taking their
course, although the Court must first satisfy itself that it has jurisdiction. Finally,
should the Court find that parties to separate proceedings are submitting the
same arguments and submissions against a common opponent in relation to
the same issue, it may order the proceedings to be joined.
The sources of law that the Court must apply are: international treaties and
conventions in force; international custom; the general principles of law; judicial
decisions; and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists. Moreover, if
the parties agree, the Court can decide a case ex aequo et bono, without
confining itself to existing rules of international law.
A case may be brought to a conclusion at any stage of the proceedings by a
settlement between the parties or by discontinuance. In case of the latter, an
applicant State may at any time inform the Court that it does not wish to
continue the proceedings, or the two parties may declare that they have
agreed to withdraw the case. The Court then removes the case from its List.
Articles of the Charter of The United Nations to take into account
Article 92
The International Court of Justice shall be the principal judicial organ of the
United Nations. It shall function in accordance with the annexed Statute, which
is based upon the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and
forms an integral part of the present Charter.
Article 93
1. All Members of the United Nations are facto parties to the Statute of the
International Court of Justice.
Article 94
1. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision
of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party.
2. If any party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under
a judgment rendered by the Court, the other party may have recourse to the
Security Council, which may, if it deems necessary, make recommendations or
decide upon measures to be taken to give effect to the judgment.
Articles of the Statute of the court to take into account
Article 36
1. The jurisdiction of the Court comprises all cases which the parties refer to it
and all matters specially provided for in the Charter of the United Nations or in
treaties and conventions in force.
2. The states parties to the present Statute may at any time declare that they
recognize as compulsory ipso facto and without special agreement, in relation
to any other state accepting the same obligation, the jurisdiction of the Court in
all legal disputes concerning:
● the interpretation of a treaty;
● any question of international law;
● the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a
breach of an international obligation;
● the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an
international obligation.
Article 38
1. The Court, whose function is to decide in accordance with international law
such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply:
● international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing
rules expressly recognized by the contesting states;
● international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as
law;
● the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations;
Introduction to the topic: Case of Argentina against Israel for violation of
sovereignty.
Adolf Eichmann was better known as the architect of the "final solution" in the
Second World War and when the war ended, he became wanted for war
crimes, he escaped from Germany and settled down in Argentina. On May
11th, 1960 he was illegally deprived of his liberty and transferred out of the
country with fake identification. Three days later, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion
announced that Eichmann was in Israeli custody. When that was revealed, the
Argentine government presided by then Arturo Frondizi, condemned the State
of Israel to give explanations under a warning of breaking diplomatic relations.
The kidnapping was interpreted as a flagrant violation of Argentine sovereignty;
besides, his crime also confirmed a series of criminal offences like:
● Illegitimate deprivation of freedom.
● Falsification of public documents.
● human “smuggling”.
Historical context
Holocaust and the end of the war:
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution
and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who
came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were
"racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to
the so-called German racial community.
During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups
because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma (Gypsies),
people with disabilities, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and
others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and
behavioural grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses,
and homosexuals.
In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most
European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence
during World War II. By 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly
two out of every three European Jews as part of the "Final Solution," the Nazi
policy to murder the Jews of Europe.
Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German authorities deported millions of Jews from
Germany, from occupied territories, and from the countries of many of its Axis
allies to ghettos and to killing centres, often called extermination camps, where
they were murdered in specially developed gassing facilities.
In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on
forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the
Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across
Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and
liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced
march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945,
the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.
For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day,
May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9,
1945.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in
displaced person camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and
1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish
displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish displaced persons emigrated to
the United States and other nations. The last camp for Jewish displaced persons
closed in 1957.
Adolf Eichmann:
He was born on March 19th of 1906 at Solingen (Germany), Eichmann's father
had among his friends Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a Nazi leader of Austrian origin.
Kaltenbrunner sponsored the entry of Eichmann into the Austrian National
Socialist Workers Party. Being really interested in the doctrine of Adolf Hitler, on
April 1 of 1932, he joined the party and the same day he enrolled in the SS,
being transferred to Berlin on October 1 of 1934 to the so-called Jewish Section
II 112 of the Service of Security. Before 1939, when the German government
contemplated the possibility of expelling the Jews instead of exterminating
them, Eichmann was one of the main Nazi interlocutors with the Zionist
movement, which studied the possibility of facilitating Jewish emigration to
Palestine. Along the same lines, he was one of the people who thought about
the viability of creating a Jewish state in Eastern Europe, in 1942 he got in
charge of organizing the transportation logistics in the Holocaust, he assumed
the leadership role in coordinating the deportation of Jews from all over Europe
to Poland(already occupied), and the construction of the gas chambers in
places like Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz. Following the
war, U.S. troops captured Eichmann, but in 1946 he escaped from a prison
camp. After dodging in and out of the Middle East, Germany and Austria for
several years, in 1950 Eichmann obtained a passport approved by the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and an Argentine visa, both in
the name of "Ricardo Klement, the technician". Eichmann settled in Argentina
in 1958. He was arrested by Israeli secret service agents near Buenos Aires,
Argentina, on May 11, 1960; nine days later they smuggled him out of the
country and took him to Israel, where he is secluded currently.
After the disclosure of the transfer of Eichmann:
The government chaired by Arturo Frondizi at the time urged the State of Israel
to give explanations under penalty of breaking diplomatic relations. Argentina
formally accused Israel of using Nazi methods to carry out its activities.
This clandestine operation generated a great debate in Argentina and an
energetic protest by the government of Arturo Frondizi against Israel, putting at
serious risk the diplomatic relations between both countries. The kidnapping was
interpreted as a flagrant violation of the Argentine sovereignty, and this was the
reason why Israel from the beginning denied all responsibility in the fact. The
official explanation of the government of Israel was that the kidnapping had
been carried out by "Jewish volunteers, some of them from Israel".
Approach
To analyze and understand the different treaties and laws of each country,
which have been established looking forward to promoting the correct
fulfilment of international right, in order to maintain positive relations between
nations in a different historical context.
Delegations
Permanent judges:
1. Lucio Moreno Quintana(Republic of Argentina)
2. David Goitein (State of Israel)
3. Green Hackworth (United States of America)
4. Hersch Lauterpacht (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland)
5. Jules Basdevant (Republic of France)
6. Wellington Koo (People's Republic of China)
7. Sir Percy Claude Spender (the Commonwealth of Australia)
8. Roberto Córdova (the United Mexican States)
9. Enrique Armand-Ugón (Eastern Republic of Uruguay)
10. Ricardo J. Alfaro (Republic of Panama)
11. Bohdan Winiarski (The Commonwealth of Poland)
12. Jean Spiropoulos (Hellenic Republic of Greece)
13. Roberto Ago(Italian Republic)
14. Federico de Castro (Kingdom of Spain)
15. Manuel Fernandes (Republic of Portugal)
16. Walter Ganshof van der Meersch (Kingdom of Belgium)
Ad hoc judges:
1. Paul Carry (Swiss Confederation)
2. Fyodor Kozhevnikov(Soviet Union)
3. Helge Klæstad(Kingdom of Norway)
Support Questions
1. What is the ICJ, its history and function?
2. What is the international right?
3. Who was Adolf Eichmann?
4. What was Eichmann's responsibility in the events that occurred in the
Holocaust?
5. What did the Garibaldi Operation consist of?
6. Which laws and treaties were violated in that operation?
7. In which aspect is my delegation involved in the case?
Glossary:
● Permanent judge: Member of an audience hall or Supreme Court of
Justice.
● Ad-Hoc judges: Judges present in the court representing other States
which do not correspond to their nationalities; these are present when a
country has a trial but is not part of the court.
● Penalty: It is a punishment that someone is given for doing something
which is against a law or rule.
● Condemned: Penalty imposed by a judge or a court.
● Holocaust: The extermination of the Jews during the second world war.
● criminal offences: An action which is punishable under the law.
● human smuggling: The facilitation, transportation, attempted
transportation or illegal entry of a person or people across an
international border, in violation of one or more countries' laws, either
clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent
documents.
● Ghettos: A part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority.
● Doctrine: A set of ideas, teachings or basic principles defended by a
religious, ideological, political movement, etc.
● Communism: A theory or system of social organization in which all
property is owned by the community and each person contributes and
receives according to their ability and needs.
● Socialism: A political and economic theory of social organization which
advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange
should be owned or regulated by the community.