Initial hearings in the case took place on 7 March 2022 at
Peace Palace in
The Hague,
Netherlands—the seat of the court—to determine Ukraine's entitlement to provisional relief. The Russian delegation did not appear for these proceedings, but submitted a written statement. On 16 March 2022, the court ruled 13–2 that Russia must "immediately suspend the military operations" it commenced on 24 February 2022 in Ukraine, with Vice-President
Kirill Gevorgian of Russia and Judge
Xue Hanqin of China dissenting. The court also unanimously called for "[b]oth Parties [to] refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute before the Court or make it more difficult to resolve". Six judges filed separate statements explaining their individual views on the case, including Vice-President Gevorgian and Judge Xue. While the court's decisions are binding on member states, the court has no means of enforcing its orders directly. In rare cases, countries have ignored rulings in the past.
Court's reasoning The court first determined that it had
jurisdiction to order provisional relief "pursuant to Article IX of the Genocide Convention", which empowers the ICJ to resolve disputes over the interpretation, application, or fulfillment of the convention. The court explained that Article IX applied because Russia and Ukraine had a dispute over whether genocide is occurring in Donetsk and Luhansk. The court then found that Ukraine had "a plausible right not to be subjected to military operations by the Russian Federation for the purpose of preventing and punishing an alleged genocide" in its territory. One reason for this finding was that there was no evidence before the court substantiating Russia's allegations of genocide. The court also found it "doubtful" that the convention, in light of its object and purpose, authorizes a contracting party's unilateral use of force in the territory of another state for the purpose of preventing or punishing an alleged genocide. The court then determined that there was a plausible link between Ukraine's asserted rights under the Genocide Convention and the main provisional relief it sought—the suspension of Russia's military operations—although it found that such a link was lacking for two other forms of relief requested by Ukraine. The two rights asserted by Ukraine were the right "not to be subject to a false claim of genocide" and the right "not to be subjected to another State's military operations on its territory based on [an abuse] of the Genocide Convention". Finally, the court ruled that there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to Ukraine's rights and the situation in Ukraine was sufficiently urgent to warrant provisional relief. On this issue, the court found that "the civilian population affected by the present conflict is extremely vulnerable. The 'special military operation' being conducted by the Russian Federation has resulted in numerous civilian deaths and injuries. It has also caused significant material damage, including the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. Attacks are ongoing and are creating increasingly difficult living conditions for the civilian population. Many persons have no access to the most basic foodstuffs, potable water, electricity, essential medicines or heating. A very large number of people are attempting to flee from the most affected cities under extremely insecure conditions." UN Secretary-General
António Guterres said the decision reinforced his repeated appeals for peace. Russian presidential press secretary
Dmitry Peskov rejected the decision, saying that Russia could not "take this decision into account" and that without consent from both sides the decision was not valid. Following an
extraordinary summit in Brussels,
NATO leaders released a joint statement condemning Russian attacks on civilians and calling on Russia to immediately suspend military operations as ordered by the court. == See also ==