Georgian Application Against Russia is Dismissed

The International Court of Justice has dismissed, by ten votes to six, the application filed by Georgia against Russia under the International Convention for the Prevention of All Form of Racial Discrimination.

Georgia’s application against Russia related to the conflict in South Ossetia in 2008. As a basis of jurisdiction, Georgia invoked article 22 of the Racial Discrimination Convention, which says:

Any dispute between two or more States Parties with respect to 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 summary of today’s judgment of the Court says:

The Court refers back to its earlier comment that Georgia did not claim to have used, prior to the seisin of the Court, the other mode of dispute resolution contained at Article 22, namely the procedures expressly provided for in CERD. Considering the Court’s conclusion that, under Article 22 of CERD, negotiations and the procedures expressly provided for in CERD constitute preconditions to its jurisdiction, and considering the factual finding that neither of these two modes of dispute settlement was attempted by Georgia, the Court finds that it does not need to examine whether the two preconditions are cumulative or alternative.

The decision and the individual and dissenting opinions do not yet seem to be posted on the Court's website. Presumably they will appear in the hours to come.