Genocide and the International Court of Justice: Recent Developments

In the space of a week the International Court of Justice handed down two significant decisions concerning the 1948 Genocide Convention. On 26 January in the Gaza Genocide case the court ordered provisional measures against Israel in a case brought by South Africa. That case commenced four weeks earlier with South Africa alleging that Israel was committing acts of genocide in violation of the Genocide Convention as part of its Gaza military operations. In the Allegations of Genocide case the court on 2 February dismissed many of the jurisdictional objections raised by Russia in a case commenced by Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine asserts there is no basis in the Genocide Convention to support Russia’s 2022 and ongoing special military operation in Ukraine. This CIPL forum will outline the legal proceedings in these two cases to date, and assess legal issues arising from them. These include:

• Standing to commence these proceedings;

• The extent of the Gaza Genocide provisional measures;

• Australia’s interest in these cases; and,

• The significance of these cases for the court, the disputes, and international law

Moderator

Professor Donald R. Rothwell, Professor of International Law, ANU College of Law

Panel Members

• Professor Douglas Guilfoyle, UNSW Canberra, ARC Future Fellow

• Dr Sarah McCosker, Partner – Lexbridge Lawyers, Canberra

• Professor Matthew Neuhaus, Honorary Professor ANU College of Law, Australian Ambassador to The Hague (2018-2022)

• Associate Professor Imogen Saunders, ANU College of Law, Director – Centre for International and Public Law

• Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala, ANU College of Law, 2022 ASIL Certificate of Merit honouree