ICJ hit by insufficient budgetary allocation

ICJ hit by insufficient budgetary allocation
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Hague, Jan 14: Cash crunch has hit the World Court, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

International Court of Justice (ICJ), which recently decided in favour of India on a case by Pakistan seeking compensation for downing of its military aircraft, has in a recent report said in view of the budgetary constraints it might not be able to hear expeditiously pending matters of global importance.

"The Court must stress that it will no longer be able to cope with the increase in those same duties without significant increase in the budget," the ICJ report for the year 1999-2000, released recently, said.

It said the budget for ICJ stands at little over 10 million US dollars per year, which represented in terms of UN budget, a percentage lower than that of 1946, even though the activities of the Court have increased enormously since then.It said the ICJ has thus far been able to proceed, or begin to proceed, to the consideration of cases which were ready for hearing, but the situation might well become problematic in the coming year.

"With the written phase in number of cases likely to be completed by the end of the year 2000, or in the first month of the year 2001, the Court will have serious difficulty in hearing these cases expeditiously," it said.

It said over the past year, the number of cases submitted to the Court has continued to rise. "Whereas in the 1970s the Court had only one or two cases on its docket at any one time, between 1990 and 1997 this number varied between 9 and 13. On July 31, 2000, it stands at 23," it added.

Giving a break up of the origin of the cases, five were between African states, two between Asian states, ten between European states and one between Latin American states, while the rest five were of an intercontinental character, the ICJ report said.

Among the important cases pending are Lockerbie plane explosion case with Libya on one side and USA and UK on the other, destruction of oil platforms case filed by Iran against USA and Yugoslavia’s case against eight member states of NATO challenging the legality of their action in Kosovo.

Referring to the meagre budget, the report said ICJ’s present budget "may be compared with that of the Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which, for the year 2000, stands at almost 100 million.

"The Registry of the Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia employs more than 800 officials, not including those working for the prosecutor’s office and the judges, whilst the Registry of the Court (all grades and types of duties) consists of 61 officials," it said.

Sounding a warning, the report said "In these circumstances, it is clear that, to carry out its duties, the Court will require additional resources in the near future."From the autumn 2000 it will need supplementary appropriations and translation and for the biennium 2002-2003, it will be obliged to request the creation of a substantial number of posts," it added.