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was a public international law case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with a judgment issued on 14 February 2002.

Facts

In 1993, the Belgian Parliament voted a "Universal jurisdiction#Belgium's 1993 "law of universal jurisdiction" & Spain's 2005 court decision, law of universal jurisdiction" to allow it to judge people accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

. In 2001, four people from Rwanda were convicted and given sentences from 12 to 20 years' imprisonment for their involvement in 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed H ...

. There was quickly an explosion of suits deposed. An arrest warrant issued in 2000 under this law against

Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi (; 5 January 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a Congolese politician who served in the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2000 and as Vice-President from 2003 to ...

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, was challenged before the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

in the case entitled ''Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium)''.

Judgment

On 14 February 2002, the judgment was handed down, and the ICJ issued a press release: The court limited the scope of its judgment to the immunity from criminal jurisdiction and the inviolability of an incumbent minister for foreign affairs and that as none of the treaties brought to the attention of the court covered this issue that the court must decide the issue based on customary international law.ICJ rejects Belgian arrest warrant for foreign ministers of Democratic Republic of Congo
United Nations Information Service. Copy of The International Court of Justice, Press Release 2002/042002 issued on 14 February 2002. Section:"Merrits" But it rejected

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

's argument that because the parties had not raised the issue of "the disputed arrest warrant, issued by the Belgian investigating judge in exercise of his purported universal jurisdiction, complied in that regard with the rules and principles of international law governing the jurisdiction of national courts, because that question was not contained in the final submissions of the Parties." and concluded that this did not stop the court dealing with certain aspects of that question in the reasoning of its Judgment.ICJ rejects Belgian arrest warrant for foreign ministers of Democratic Republic of Congo
United Nations Information Service. Copy of The International Court of Justice, Press Release 2002/042002 issued on 14 February 2002. Section:"Jurisdiction and Admissibility" Referring to the few existing decisions of national high courts, such as the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

and the French Court of Cassation they concluded that immunity was not granted to state officials for their own benefit, but to ensure the effective performance of their functions on behalf of their respective state; and when abroad that they enjoy full immunity from arrest in another state on criminal charges including charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity. The court noted that this immunity from jurisdiction of a foreign national court, existed even when foreign national courts exercise an extended criminal jurisdiction on the basis of various international conventions that covered the prevention and punishment of certain serious crimes. However the court emphasized that "While jurisdictional immunity is procedural in nature, criminal responsibility is a question of substantive law. Jurisdictional immunity may well bar prosecution for a certain period or for certain offences; it cannot exonerate the person to whom it applies from all criminal responsibility."

References

*
ICJ rejects Belgian arrest warrant for foreign ministers of Democratic Republic of Congo
United Nations Information Service. Copy of The International Court of Justice, Press Release 2002/042002 issued on 14 February 2002

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Democratic Republic Of The Congo V. Belgium International Court of Justice cases Law of the Democratic Republic of the Congo International criminal law 2002 in case law Belgium–Democratic Republic of the Congo relations 2000 in international relations 2002 in Belgium 2002 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2002 in international relations

Facts

Judgment

See also

References

Further reading

Footnotes