Abstract:
“Racial discrimination is one of the most invidious forms of discrimination”. – Judge Iwasawa
Human dignity is one of the basic conceptualisation in international human rights treaty law. Simply, the ultimate aim of life is to have dignified existence. Dignity of human being is being violated in many ways and means including racial discrimination. This is recognised in a lex specialis regime i.e. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965.The main question of law or question for judicial interpretation is that whether nationality is included in the prohibited ground of ‘national origin’ in Article 1 of the Convention. To note, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrants Workers and Members of Their Families explicit listed ‘nationality’ as a prohibited ground of discrimination. So, this case needs analysis to find out whether scope of the Convention includes ‘nationality’ in the prohibited ground of racial discrimination or not. For convenience, this work focuses on stage by stage development of this case. It also uses the individual Judges opinions to evaluate the provisional order and merit judgment.
Key Words: Racial Discrimination, nationality, national origin, Qataris.
1.Introduction:
In 2018, certain events were unfolded in the Grande Salle de Justice of the Peace Palace, Netherland i.e. the World Court or the International Court of Justice(Hereinafter referred to as the ‘ICJ’). The rift between the Gulf Council States resulted in a series of three cases filed before the ICJ including the case concerning International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination(Hereinafter referred to as the ‘CERD’).[1]To note, this is the third case before the ICJ dealing with the application or interpretation of the CERD.[2] The ICJ performs international judicial function for its being the principal judicial organ and one of the principalorgans of the United Nations(Hereinafter referred to as the ‘UN’).[3]
The developments after 5 June 2017 severely affected the friendly relations between Qatar and the other Gulf member States.[4]The friendly relationship is one of the foundational principles of modern international law and it reflected in the Charter of the United Nationsand Friendly Declaration.[5]Itprovides for smooth and stable international conduct and relations among States. The CERD is a pioneering human right treaty law of universal character and occupies a prominent place in the Laws of the United Nations.[6] The case laws of the CERD Convention disclose the centrality of human being in our contemporary international law.[7] Thus, it is evident that inter-State outlook of traditional international law is shifting towards people centered international law. This article exclusively deals with the case between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (Hereinafter referred to as the ‘UAE’).
[1] Refer, Appeal Relating to the Jurisdiction of the ICAO Council under Article II, Section 2 of the International Air Services Transit Agreement (Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates v. Qatar), Judgment of the ICJ, 14 July 2020; Appeal Relating to the Jurisdiction of the ICAO Council under Article under Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates v. Qatar), Judgment of the ICJ, 14 July 2020 and Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v. United Arab Emirates), Judgment of the International Court of Justice, 4 February 2021.
[2] See, Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Georgia v. Russian Federation), Preliminary Objection, ICJ, 1 April 2011; Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), Preliminary Objection, Judgment, ICJ, 8 November 2019 and Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v. United Arab Emirates), Preliminary Objection, International Court of Justice, 4 February 2021.
[3] Refer, Charter of the UN, art. 7 and 92; The Statue of the ICJ, art. 1.
[4] The Gulf Cooperation Council is established by the Charter of Cooperation Council for The Arab States of the Gulf between the six Gulf States. They are as follows: (1) The United Arab Emirates; (2) The State of Bahrain; (3) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; (4) The Sultanate of Oman; (5) The State of Qatar and (6) The State of Kuwait.
[5] Declaration on the Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations established by the UNGA Res. 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970. The ultimate aim of friendly relations is to achieve universal peace and to perpetuate it id est perpetual peace.
[6] Separate Opinion of Judge Trindade, Qatar, PM (1), pp. 21, para. 66.
[7]Ibid.