Campaign against the British nominee to the ICJ

To the Members of the General Assembly and Security Council of the United Nations.

The United Nations which you represent and govern at present signify the international community’s efforts to save humanity from the scourge of war. The sculpture of peace which adorns the United Nations Headquarters in New York City manifests the principle of peace that permeates the United Nations.

In order to usher a world governed by the rule of law and not by the rule of force world leaders gathered at the first Hague Conference in 1899 and The International Court of Justice sitting at The Hague is the embodiment of a world based on international peace and justice.

In the latter part of this year, you the members of the General Assembly and the Security Council will gather to elect judges to the International Court of Justice. Their Excellencies, the judges of the International Court of Justice are guardians and trustees of the twin goals of peace and justice which the United Nations and the International Court of Justice embody.

We the citizens of the world, the people you represent and for whom you work for, have the utmost confidence that you will perform your task with great diligence and responsibility, fully aware of the gravity of your decision.

It is in these circumstances that we petition you to not elect the British nominee to the Court, Professor Christopher Greenwood QC for the several reasons set out below.

The American and the British invasion of Iraq is in the history of the United Nations and to international legal order, a near fatal blow and the institution is still trying to recover from it. Thus the elections of November 2008 come at a very critical point to the International Court. Today Iraq has become a humanitarian disaster and furthermore the scourge of war appears to be raising its ugly head once more as being the normal course for the resolution of disputes between States.

The overwhelming opinion of international lawyers was that the invasion was illegal and the question of legality was of utmost importance to both the American and British governments in justifying the invasion.

The British nominee to the Court, Professor Greenwood has the notoriety for being the only prominent if not the only British international lawyer to argue that the invasion of Iraq was justified under international law. His grounds for justification have been doubted, dismissed and disgraced by international lawyers of global eminence.

For his role in advising the British government on the legality of the invasion of Iraq, Greenwood has earned the appellation, ‘War QC’ by the British Press and the question remains as to whether the War QC should sit in the Peace Palace.

His election would greatly erode the credibility of the Court and the confidence we as citizens of the world have of the Court. This is in the context of the Court being called to decide on some of the most important questions and disputes affecting mankind.

Therefore we the undersigned call on you to ignore the undemocratic practice followed so far of permitting the automatic election of nominees of the five permanent members of the Security Council and to save the Court from the judges of doubtful competence and credibility.