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Bhandari re-elected to ICJ after UK pullout
India’s Dalveer Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected to the International Court of Justice as the General Assembly overwhelmingly threw its weight behind him, forcing Britain to withdraw its candidate from a hard-fought race to the World Court.
United Nations: India’s Dalveer Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected to the International Court of Justice as the General Assembly overwhelmingly threw its weight behind him, forcing Britain to withdraw its candidate from a hard-fought race to the World Court.
Bhandari and UK’s Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election as the UN could not decide between them after electing four out of five judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Bhandari, 70, received 183 out of 193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all 15 votes in the Security Council to fill the final vacancy on the ICJ after separate but simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.
Soon after the election results were announced, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin was congratulated by representatives of other countries on the floor of the General Assembly. In a dramatic turn of events, British Permanent Representative to the UN Matthew Rycroft wrote identical letters to the presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council before the two chambers were scheduled to meet at 3pm (local time) for the 12th round of voting.
“The current deadlock is unlikely to be broken by further rounds of voting. We have therefore consulted our candidate Sir Christopher Greenwood who has confirmed that his candidate for re-election to the International Court of Justice should be withdrawn,” Rycroft said in his letter which was read out simultaneously in the General Assembly and the Security Council. “In taking this step, we have borne in mind the close relationship that the United Kingdom and India have always enjoyed and we will continue to enjoy; and the fact that both candidates fulfil the requirements for our elections and have already served the court diligently with impartiality and independence,” Rycroft said.
The UK will not have a judge on the bench of the ICJ for the first time in its 71-year history. Based in The Hague, the ICJ has a bench of 15 judges, five of whom are elected every three years for a nine-year term. Established in 1945, the role of the ICJ is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions.
The permanent members of the Security Council — the US, Russia, France and China — were understood to have been throwing their weight behind 62-year-old Greenwood.The voting in the General Assembly which overwhelmingly favoured India is reflective of the new global order, which is not pleasant to the world powers.
