Oral proceedings on reservations to the genocide convention began yesterday before the International Court of Justice here. Dr. Ivan S. Kerno, head of the U.N. Legal Department, told the court that the issue had an important bearing on the orderly application of the convention, which came into force last January.
The U.N. General Assembly sought an advisory opinion from the Court because there is a divergence of view as to the effect of reservations made to the instrument and the objections raised to those reservations. So far four states have signed the convention with reservations and five have ratified with reservations. All the reservations have been objected to by other states which became parties to the convention without reservation.
The Assembly has asked the Court whether a reserving state can be regarded as a party to the convention when its reservations have been objected to by other parties; and, in such a case, what would be the effect of the reservation between the reserving state and the objecting parties, on the one hand, and those which accept, on the other.
This case has aroused widespread interest in international legal circles and no less than 13 states and three international organizations have submitted written statements to the Court concerning it. It is known that whatever is decided in respect to the genocide convention will have considerable significance for all other international conventions.
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