The United Nations formally accused the United States of violating its international legal obligations and asked the World Court here Tuesday to intervene.
Carl-August Fleischauer, the U.N. under-secretary general for legal affairs, asked the 15-judge panel to order binding arbitration of the dispute arising from a U.S. Department of Justice order in February to shut down the Palestine Liberation Organization’s observer mission to the United Nations in New York. A decision is expected in a few weeks.
The United States was not represented in court. Its position is that the closure order is an internal matter over which the international court of justice has no jurisdiction.
The Justice Department’s closure order was issued in compliance with the Anti-Terrorist Act of 1987, adopted by Congress and signed by President Reagan on Dec. 22.
The PLO, backed by the U.N. Secretariat and the General Assembly, refused to comply. U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese asked the federal district court in Manhattan on March 2 to enforce the closure.
Fleischauer told the World Court that the United Nations “is not reassured” by the American pledge not to close the PLO mission until a federal judge has ruled in the case.
Replying to questions from Judge Stephen Schwebel, a U.S. member of the World Court panel, Fleischauer stressed that the dispute is not between the United States and the PLO, but between the United States and the United Nations.
The United Nations maintains that by trying to close the PLO mission, the American authorities are in violation of the 1947 Headquarters Agreement, which governs relations between the United Nations and the host country, the United States.
The United States has no authority to close the PLO mission “because it is a U.N. mission where the PLO has observer status and takes part in General Assembly debates and other U.N. activities,” Fleischauer argued. The United States insists its own laws supersede international law.
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