DECISIONS OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS: INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE - CASE CONCERNING ARMED ACTIVITIES ON THE TERRITORY OF THE CONGO (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO v UGANDA)

摘要

The Case Concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo is one of four cases instituted by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before the International Court of Justice since 1999 in response to the alleged violations committed by the States parties to the Congolese conflict. This unprecedented pattern of serial litigation is in part a direct consequence of the complexity and the wide range of actors involved in the prolonged armed conflict that has been going on in the DRC since at least 1994. The case brought by the DRC against Belgium in the Arrest Warrant Case, although concerned with the extent of immunities of a serving foreign minister, indirectly raised the question of accountability for violations of humanitarian norms including war crimes, committed during the armed conflict. Two other cases directly concerned with the use of force were instituted against Burundi3 and Rwanda. Of these, the case against Burundi, whose jurisdictional basis was rather insecure, was unilaterally discontinued by the DRC, and on 25 January 2006, the Court found that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the merits of the application against Rwanda. The case against Uganda is therefore significant as it is the only one of the Congolese cases concerned with the use of force, in respect of which the Court has given a judgment on the merits. It is also the fkst time since the Court's landmark judgment in the Nicaragua case that it has been presented with issues that potentially involved a re-appraisal of its jurisprudence in that case, especially as it applies to the consequences of armed attacks orchestrated by rebel groups on state territory and directed at foreign governments.