STATEMENT
OF INTENTION BY THE REPUBLIC OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA TO INSTITUTE
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE UNITED KINGDOM BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL
COURT OF JUSTICE
15 November, 1993.
Today, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina hereby states our solemn
intention to institute legal proceedings against the United Kingdom
before the International Court of Justice for violating
the terms of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide; of the 1965 International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and of the other
sources of general international law set forth in Article
38 of the World Court's Statute. We have already issued formal
instructions to that effect to our Attorneys-of-Record before the World
Court. They are currently drafting an Application and a Request for
Provisional Measures against the United Kingdom. We
have instructed our lawyers to file these papers with the World Court
as soon as physically possible. In the meantime, we hereby reserve all
of our international legal rights against the United Kingdom
I.
Both the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Kingdom are
contracting parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention. Article IX of the
Genocide Convention provides as follows:
"Disputes between the Contracting Parties
relating
to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the present
Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of State for
genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article
III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the
request of any of the parties to the dispute."
We will sue the United Kingdom for violating the following provisions of the Genocide Convention, inter alia:
First, in our Application and Request to the World Court, we will
charge that the United Kingdom has failed in their affirmative
obligation and refused "to prevent" genocide against the
People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina in violation of Article I of
the Genocide Convention, which provides as follows:
"The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in
the time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law
which they undertake to prevent
and to punish."
Second, in our Application and Request to the World Court, we will
charge that the United Kingdom has illegally imposed and maintained an
arms embargo upon the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
in violation of U.N. Charter Article 51 while acting in its capacity as
a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council. The United
Kingdom has also aided and abetted the ongoing genocide against the
People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina by
actively opposing all of the efforts by other States to "lift" this
illegal arms embargo. For these reasons, we will charge that the United
Kingdom has violated Article III, paragraph
(e)
of the Genocide Convention that expressly prohibits "complicity in
genocide." The legal basis for this charge has been developed at length
by Judge ad hoc Elihu Lauterpacht in his Separate Opinion
attached to the World Court's Order of 13 September 1993 in the Case
Concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v.
Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)), which is currently pending.
Finally, in our Application and Request to the World Court, we will
charge that the United Kingdom is both jointly and severally liable for
all of the harm that has been inflicted upon the
People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina because the United Kingdom
is an aider and abettor to genocide under the Genocide Convention and
international criminal law.
In drafting these legal pleadings for the World Court, and during the
course of the subsequent proceedings, our lawyers will also name and
implicate other Member States of the U.N. Security
Council that have supported this illegal arms embargo in violation of
U.N. Charter Article 51, as aiders and abettors to genocide against the
People and State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will not sue these other
States at this time.
We also serve notice upon all of the more than 100 Contracting Parties
to the Genocide Convention that each and every one of them has a solemn
legal and moral obligation "to prevent" the
commission of genocide in and against the People and State of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as required by Article I.
II.
Both the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Kingdom are
also contracting parties to the 1965 International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Article 22 thereof provides as follows:
Article 22
Any dispute between two or more States Parties over the interpretation
or application of this Convention, which is not settled by negotiation
or by the procedures expressly
provided for in this Convention, shall at the request of any of the
parties to the dispute be referred to the International Court of Justice
for decision, unless the disputants agree to another mode of
settlement.
The
United Kingdom has promoted options, ostensibly as solutions to the
aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that are
inconsistent with the terms of this treaty.
****
This
Statement will be circulated to all Members of the United Nations
Organization, and will also be filed with the International Court of
Justice.
bosnia-h\statemnt.n93
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Ill. 61820
francis a. boyle
