Crime of Genocide: The French Republic files a declaration of intervention in the proceedings under Article 63 of the Statute

F.P. Report

THE HAGUE: The French Republic, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation).

Pursuant to Article 63 of the Statute, whenever the construction of a convention to which States other than those concerned in the case are parties is in question, each of these States has the right to intervene in the proceedings. In this case, the construction given by the judgment of the Court will be equally binding upon them.

In its declaration of intervention, France emphasizes that, as a party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, it

“considers it necessary to avail itself of its right to intervene in the present case, particularly in view of the special nature of the Convention . . . in which ‘the contracting States do not have any interests of their own [and] merely have, one and all, a common interest, namely, the accomplishment of those high purposes which are the raison d’être of the convention’, as the Court stated in its Advisory Opinion on Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

In accordance with Article 83 of the Rules of Court, Ukraine and the Russian Federation have been invited to furnish written observations on France’s declaration of intervention.

France’s declaration of intervention will be available on the Court’s website shortly.