To win ICJ election a candidate needs to get majority in both the UNGA and the UNSC
Even as India's Dalveer Bhandari has got an overwhelming support at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to fill last vacant seat at the Hague based International Court of Justice (ICJ), the rival candidate Britain's Christopher Greenwood and diplomats from his country are attempting to turn tables by pushing for a joint conference mechanism through the UN Security Council.
Diplomatic sources here said that Britain is aggressively pushing in the UNSC, where it has veto power for resorting to the joint conference mechanism which was last used some 96 years ago and against which there exists an unequivocal legal opinion. Under this, three members each from the General Assembly and Security Council would be formed to come out with a name, which would again have to be voted through both the Security Council and the General Assembly.
In all previous incidents, the candidate getting majority in the General Assembly has eventually been elected a judge to the ICJ. Almost 193 countries in the General Assembly voted for Bhandari, as against just 50 in favour of Greenwood. To win ICJ election a candidate needs to get majority in both the UNGA and the UNSC. But so far while India has got majority of support in the UNGA, the UK has won support in the UNSC.
Sensing that majority is not on Indian side, the UK has approached the UNSC for an informal consultation proposing that voting in the UNSC be stopped after first round on Monday and they go for joint conference mechanism. Britain needs nine votes for the voting be stopped. The only time the option of joint conference mechanism was used way back in 1921, prior to the birth of the UN when Deputy Judges for the Permanent Court of International Justice were selected.
Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, has strongly opposed the joint conference mechanism. "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," he told the diplomats from more than 160 countries.
"Because it opens a can of worms. We will forget about the electoral process and go after a can of worms? You are diplomats, you are sagacious people. Diplomacy is the solution. Voting is the way that diplomats resolve their differences, rather than through convoluted, cabalistic solutions of a bygone era," Akbaruddin had said.
In the past most of the times the candidate who was consistently leading in the General Assembly, was elected ultimately. Diplomats here say, the UK move raises series of questions, as to what happens if the three representatives of the General Assembly stick to the voice of the majority, or if it does not provide any names or every time says that it does not agree with the names being proposed by the Security Council, they said.
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