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International Court of Justice (ICJ)

News and expert analyses

What is it all about?

The UN court

Explore the International Court of Justice (ICJ) through our news articles and expert analysis. Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the ICJ is the judicial organ of the United Nations established after the Second World War to adjudicate disputes between its member states. The ICJ also issues advisory opinions on legal questions submitted by UN organs. For instance, the Security Council sought its opinion on the "legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory". The debates between Russia and Ukraine regarding alleged violations of the Genocide Convention have also marked the ICJ's recent activities. Additionally, at the request of South Africa, the ICJ called on the State of Israel to take immediate measures to ensure its military does not violate the Genocide Convention in Gaza. Justice Info helps you understand these cases.

Palestinian children cry after their relatives, including infants, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their shelter in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on January 14, 2025.
Is Israel losing the legal battle?
5 May 2025 by Janet H. Anderson
Less than a year after the International Court of Justice ruled Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal and supported Palestinian rights to self-determination, the UN court hears about it again.
Sudan has filed a genocide claim against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Photo: Soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces in a combat vehicle are greeted by Sudanese in Khartoum. Sudan vs UAE: just trying to get attention?
21 March 2025 by Janet H. Anderson
Sudan has filed a genocide claim against the United Arab Emirates before the International Court of Justice. But legal experts agree that the case has very little chance of proceeding, so why have they bothered?
Climate justice - Arnold Kiel Loughman (Attorney General of the Republic of Vanuatu) pleads before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for polluting states to be held responsible for the effects of climate change. Climate justice: who argued what at the ICJ
9 January 2025 by Margherita Capacci
The hearings in the climate case before the International Court of Justice wrapped up last December in The Hague. The court’s advisory opinion is expected within a year. Countries from the Global South and small states from the Pa [...]
In villages in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), survivors of attacks by Ugandan soldiers are waiting to receive reparations. Photo: Three survivors of massacres (seen from behind) in front of a mass grave (not shown) where their relatives are buried. DRC: with the forgotten people of North Kivu
10 December 2024 by Claude Sengenya
In North Kivu, the inhabitants of the villages of Maboya-Loya and Kikere have not yet seen a penny of the millions of dollars in reparations paid to Congo by Uganda for the violence perpetrated by Ugandan soldiers a quarter of a c [...]
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Legal battle for the climate before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Photo: Cyclone Pam (2015) over Vanuatu as seen from a satellite.
29 November 2024 by Golnouche K. Barzegar
The battle for the climate takes on the ICJ   The COP29 just ended in Azerbaijan with a financial agreement deemed insufficient by many participants. Now states of the Global South and environmental campaigners are pinning their hopes on the legal battle being waged before th [...]
Palestine/Israel: what are the recommendations of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in terms of law, and the United Nations resolution to stop and repair the Israeli occupation deemed illegal. Photo: Special session of the UN General Assembly during a vote on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
7 October 2024 by Nada Kiswanson
Palestine-Israel: it’s time to implement a legal roadmap to peace A year after the October 7 attack, the war unleashed in response by Israel is spreading to the whole region. The UN’s World Court (ICJ) delivered in July an Opinion that has been followed, on September 18, by a large majority at t [...]
Julia Sebutinde, from Uganda, is a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Photo: official portrait of Sebutinde at the ICJ.
23 July 2024 by Grace Matsiko
Who is Julia Sebutinde, the ICJ judge who says “no”? In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has taken three landmark decisions to protect the Palestinian population, including warning Israel against the risk of being accused of genocide. In each of these decisions, alone [...]
Occupation of Palestine by Israel: the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues its ruling. Photo: a bulldozer operates at a construction site in Givat HaMatos, an Israeli settlement suburb of annexed east Jerusalem.
22 July 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
Israeli occupation of Palestine: strong reactions after ICJ ruling On Friday 19 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said it considered Israeli policies and practices in the Palestinian territories illegal, that they amounted to annexation, discrimination and segregation. The advisory o [...]
Justice for Syria and the International court of Justice (ICJ) - Photo: a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the streets of Damascus.
7 June 2024 by Veronica Bellintani + Adrian Lakrichi + Mouhanad Sharabati
Why isn’t the ICJ bolder on Syria? One year after the June 8th 2023 complaint and six months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered measures against the Syrian government, torture and human rights violations are still committed as reported by the UN [...]
International justice: why is South Africa defending Palestine? - Photo: in 1998, Nelson Mandela (President of South Africa) prepares to embrace Yasser Arafat (President of the Palestinian Authority).
6 June 2024 by Benjamin Bibas
Why South Africa is fighting for Palestine in The Hague “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” said Nelson Mandela. At a time when the party he brought to power at the end of apartheid has just lost its absolute majority, these words [...]
Yaron Wax, deputy head of mission for the Israeli embassy in the Netherlands, British lawyer and member of Israel's legal team, Malcom Shaw KC and Member of Israel's legal team Avigail Frisch Ben Avraham attend a hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as part of South Africa's request on a Gaza ceasefire in The Hague, on May 24, 2024.
24 May 2024 by AFP
The ICJ’s warning to Israel The International Court of Justice's (ICJ) warning to Israel on May 24 is barely veiled. The court orders Israel to immediately cease its offensive on Rafah, Gaza, and makes it clear that, if it doesn't, the risk of being accused [...]
Nicaragua considers Germany's support for Israel (by supplying it with arms) to be complicity in genocide. Photo: An Israeli tank in Palestine, near Gaza.
12 April 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
Nicaragua extends the legal battle over Palestine On April 8-9, the International Court of Justice heard Nicaragua’s lawyers arguing that Germany was violating the Genocide Convention by continuing to supply arms to Israel. This legal action follows South Africa’s against Israel [...]
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has heard arguments from Aishath Shaan Shakir for the Maldives, on the subject of Israel's occupation of Palestine.
5 March 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
Is the ICJ the new “nuclear weapon” of small states? The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) is now subject to thousands of memes and TikTok videos of its proceedings. A whole new generation have found out about this court via its involvement in the ongoing wars in Pale [...]
War in Ukraine and justice - Photo: Ukrainian tanks stuck in the mud near the front line.
23 February 2024 by Franck Petit
"Stalemate in the Ukraine war translates into a justice stalemate" Two years ago, on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, plunging the country into the deadliest war in Europe since 1945 and turning global geopolitics on its head. At the start of this conflict, and then again a year ago, Ju [...]
Hearing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel's occupation of Palestine, February 19, 2024. Photo: Philippe Sands develops his arguments from the Palestinian side.
20 February 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
Palestine’s plea against occupation On the first day of hearings at the International Court of Justice in the Hague on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the judges heard from Palestine’s lawyers. They emphasised the international importance of the ca [...]
International Court of Justice (ICJ): 2 questions for peace in Palestine. Photo: view of the court during the hearing of South Africa (right) against Israel (left), facing the judges. 2 question marks are embedded in screens.
16 February 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
Israel occupation: ICJ goes to the heart of the “political deadlock” The two questions being debated from Monday 19 February - by 52 States and 3 international organisations - at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) goes all at once to the heart of the conflict that is raging, of the world lega [...]
3 years after the coup in Myanmar: what justice? Photo: soldiers stand guard on a blockaded road to parliament (February 1, 2021).
1 February 2024 by Julia Crawford
Three years after the coup, hopes of justice for Myanmar? February 1 marks three years since the coup in Myanmar, where the military regime is accused of widespread abuses against civilians. It is also more than six years since 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh. With the [...]
Is international justice relevant to prevent genocide in Gaza? Photo: A protestor holds a Palestinian flag in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague.
1 February 2024 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Is international justice relevant to prevent genocide in Gaza? Swedish lawyer of Palestinian origin Nada Kiswanson has for the last 15 years provided evidence to various international institutions including the International Criminal Court, in order, she says, to “bring to an end violations c [...]
Victims of the Israel / Palestine war in Rafah (Gaza Strip)
26 January 2024 by AFP
The ICJ calls on Israel to prevent "genocide" in Gaza On 26 January, the International Court of Justice declared itself competent to rule on the dispute between South Africa and Israel concerning the situation in Gaza. It ordered Israel to take "all measures within its power to preve [...]
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