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Former Supreme Court judge Dalveer Bhandari, 70, has the support of nearly two-thirds of the 193 UN members. Christopher Greenwood, who has already served one nine-year term in the ICJ, is trailing behind by more than 50 votes in the General Assembly.
All India | Edited by Shylaja Varma | Updated: November 21, 2017 03:05 IST
Former Supreme Court judge Dalveer Bhandari has the support of nearly two-thirds UN members
Story Highlights
Here is your 10-point-guide to the ICJ elections:
All India | Edited by Shylaja Varma | Updated: November 21, 2017 03:05 IST
Former Supreme Court judge Dalveer Bhandari has the support of nearly two-thirds UN members
Story Highlights
- Dalveer Bhandari, 70, is a former Supreme Court judge
- UK's Christopher Greenwood has served one nine-year term in the ICJ
- 12th round of voting tonight for last seat in the World Court
Here is your 10-point-guide to the ICJ elections:
- One-third of the ICJ's 15-member bench is elected every three years for a nine-year term. Elections are held separately but simultaneously in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Security Council in New York.
- On November 9, the UNGA and Security Council members had elected judges to four of the five seats up for re-election this year, with the fate of the candidates from India and Britain hanging in the balance.
- To win an ICJ election, a candidate needs to get a majority in both the General Assembly and the Security Council, which has not happened in this case in the 11 rounds of voting so far.
- Former Supreme Court judge Dalveer Bhandari, 70, has the support of nearly two-thirds of the 193 UN members. Christopher Greenwood, who has already served one nine-year term in the ICJ, is trailing behind by more than 50 votes in the General Assembly. However, he has been leading Mr Bhandari nine against five in the Security Council.
- In all previous such contests, the candidate who got a majority in the General Assembly was eventually elected. Britain is seen to be aggressively pushing in the 15-member UN Security Council, of which India is currently not a member, for resorting to the joint conference mechanism, against which there exists an unequivocal legal opinion, sources said.
- A joint conference would mean picking three countries each from the the UNGA and the UNSC, which will meet and choose a candidate. The UNGA and Security Council would then vote on that name.
- Britain has argued that there is a deadlock and has reportedly proposed that voting in the Security Council be stopped, which would mean that the UNGA would also have to stop voting. Britain needs nine votes for voting to be stopped and hopes that the nine Security Council members supporting its candidate so far, will agree.
- Critics have described Britain's move as "dirty politics" which has sent a sense of "uneasiness" among other members of the powerful UN Security Council, many of who are aware of the long-term implications of a move to ignore the voice of the majority of the United Nations General Assembly.
- "Those who talk of bringing the UN and updating it to the 21st Century world cannot look back to the toolkit of 100 years ago and try to take out a tool which has never been used in the history of the UN and perhaps for valid reasons," Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, told diplomats at the UN headquarters, where more than 160 diplomats attended a reception for Judge Bhandari, reflecting the majority India enjoys in the General Assembly.
- The joint conference mechanism has never been used in the entire history of seven decades of the ICJ, sources said. The only time it was used was before the establishment of the UN in 1921, when Deputy Judges for the Permanent Court of International Justice were selected.
