India's Dalveer Bhandari votes against Russia's military operation in Ukraine at UN court
Dalveer Bhandari, a former Supreme Court judge, was among the 13 who voted against Russia's military action in Ukraine at the International Court of Justice.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands, has directed that Russia must immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine. Former Supreme Court Justice Dalveer Bhandari, one of the 15 sitting judges of the UN court who participated through a video link due to Covid-19, voted against the Russian operation in Ukraine. The direction further cornered Russia amid growing sanctions from the West against Russian businesses and oligarchs.
The court said that it is “acutely aware of the extent of human tragedy taking place in Ukraine and is profoundly concerned about the use of Russian force against Ukraine”. It also emphasised the “obligation of all states to act under their obligations under international law”.
The order was passed in the top international court by a 13 against two majorities. Judges from the US, Slovakia, France, Morocco, Somalia, Uganda, Jamaica, Lebanon, Japan, Germany, Australia and India voted in favour of Russia suspending military operations in Ukraine, while those from Russia and China voted against.
Ukraine, in its “Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against Russia”, accused its neighbor of “planning acts of genocide in Ukraine” and seeing them through and appealed to the ICJ to direct Russia to suspend its onslaught.
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Russia, however, failed to appear before the court. Noting this and Russia’s back-and-forth in the matter, the court said: “By a letter dated March 5, the ambassador to the Russian federation indicated that his government had decided not to participate in the proceedings. But on March 7, he submitted a letter citing lack of jurisdiction of this court in the case.”
“The court wishes to express its regret in the decision of the Russian federation to not participate in the proceedings. It is valuable for the court to know the views of both parties, however they may be expressed. Therefore we take into account the letter submitted by Russian federation on March 7,” it said.
“Non participation of a party cannot impact the validity of our decision,” it ruled.
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The court further said, “Since 2014, various state organs and senior representatives of the Russian federation have mentioned in their statements about acts of genocide by Ukraine in two main regions. In an address made on 24 February 2022, the President of the Russian federation referred to the position in one region in Ukraine as “horror and genocide” that people are facing. The President explained that he had decided, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN charter, to conduct a special military operation and said the object of this special military operation was to protect people who were facing genocide for the past eight years.”
Ukraine, the court said, had issued a statement, strongly denying the Russian allegations.
Maintaining that the court is “not obligated to decide if any crimes of genocide have occurred at the present stage”, it said it only has to decide “if the acts of Russia are capable of falling under the genocide convention”.
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Ukraine woke up to a pre-dawn attack by Russia on February 24 after days and weeks of movement of Russian weapons, artillery and troops to the border areas. In the 21 days since, the war has forced millions to flee their homes, killed hundreds and injured many, crippling the nation.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed a joint session of the US Congress, saying that his country is under a full-scale Russian invasion and Europe has not seen this since World War II. Kyiv is not giving up despite air raids and missile strikes by Russia, he stressed.
“Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided - whether Ukrainians will be free. Russia didn’t just attack our cities, it went on a brutal offensive against our values, our right to live freely,” Zelenskyy said.
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