ICJ and its Order in the dispute between Islamic Republic of Iran and United States of America

Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) held a session at the university on 3 October 2018 with participation of some 40 students of international law from different universities with the subject of “The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its order on a dispute between Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.”, AVA Diplomatic reports.

At the beginning of the session and after the screening of a video on ICJ with Persian subtitles, translated by UNIC interns, UNIC Reference Assistant Ms. Nazanin Ghaemmaghami-Farahani briefed the participants on how to navigate through the website of ICJ to find and retrieve information, such as the history and members of the Court, judges ad-hoc, annual reports and other publications. She also introduced the current vacancies and internship opportunities at the Court.

There was a focus on the five contentious cases organized by Iran at the ICJ specifically the case on “Alleged violations of the 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America)”. Students learnt where to find information about press releases, verbatim records, application instituting proceedings, as well as Iran’s request for the indication of provisional measures. The participants learnt also where to find videos on the public hearings on the case held from 27 to 30 August 2018.

Then, with the participation of the University professors, the live session of the Court was screened in which the President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, read out the Court’s order and announced that the Court indicated provisional measures in order to preserve certain rights claimed by Iran and asked the Parties to refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute.

After listening carefully to the ICJ Order, the participants had the opportunity to hear the ideas and analysis made about it by the Dean of the University and one of the members of the Iranian team at the ICJ, Dr. Ebrahim Beigzadeh, as well as the Faculty member of Shahid Beheshti University Dr. Mir Shahbiz Shafe, and Faculty member of Azad University Dr. Mehdi Zakerian. At the end there was a question and answer session.

Copies of the UN Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice in Persian were distributed among students.