Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Nicaragua v. Germany): Request for the indication of provisional measures – ICJ Press Release

To learn more about all ICJ cases related to the question of Palestine, click here to visit the dedicated webpage.

09 April 2024

Conclusion of the public hearings held on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 April 2024

THE HAGUE – The public hearings on the Request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by Nicaragua in the case concerning Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Nicaragua v. Germany) concluded today.

The delegation of Nicaragua was led by HE Ambassador Carlos José Argüello Gómez, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Nicaragua to the international organizations based in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as Agent and Counsel. The delegation of Germany was led by Ms Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, Legal Adviser and Director-General for Legal Affairs, Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, as Agent.

At the end of the hearings, the Agents of Nicaragua and Germany made the following requests to the Court:

For Nicaragua:

“Nicaragua respectfully requests the Court, as a matter of extreme urgency, pending the Court’s determination of this case on the merits, and after recalling to the Parties the obligation of compliance with humanitarian law as well as of the obligation of cooperation to bring to an end all serious breaches of peremptory norms of international law, to indicate the following provisional measures with respect to Germany in its participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of general international law occurring in the Gaza Strip, as well as in other parts of Palestine, namely, to order that:

(1) Germany must immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance, export and authorization of export of military equipment and war weapons, in so far as this aid is used or could be used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law or other peremptory norms of general international law;

(2) Germany must immediately ensure that military equipment, war weapons, and other equipment used for military purposes already delivered by Germany and German entities to Israel are not used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law or other peremptory norms of general international law;

(3) Germany must resume its support and financing of UNRWA in respect of its operations in Gaza.”

For Germany:

“The Federal Republic of Germany asks the Court

1) to reject the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by the Republic of Nicaragua; and

2) to remove from the General List the case introduced by the Republic of Nicaragua on 1 March 2024.”

*

The Court will now begin its deliberation.

The Court’s decision will be delivered at a public sitting, the date of which will be announced in due course.

___________