Canada, Netherlands join Ukraine v. Russia case at International Court of Justice

The Court said this in a press release, Ukrinform reports.

“Today [December 7], Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a joint 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),” the report reads.

According to the press release, Canada and the Netherlands have used Article 63 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, according to which a party to an international treaty has the right to intervene in the proceedings.

“In their joint declaration, Canada and the Netherlands state that ‘bearing in mind the jus cogens character of the prohibition of genocide, and the erga omnes partes nature of the obligations under the Genocide Convention, all Contracting Parties have a common interest in the accomplishment of the high purposes of the Genocide Convention,’” the court’s press service said.

Canada and the Netherlands said in the joint declaration that “[g]iven their common interest in the accomplishment of the high purposes of the Convention, as well as their consequent interest in its construction, Canada and the Netherlands have decided to intervene in this case in order to place their interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Convention before the Court.”