BRITAIN UNCEREMONIOUSLY OUSTED FROM ICJ
By Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Veteran Special Forces
In its 71 years of existence the International Court of Justice for the first time will not have a judge from England on its benches. People of Britain have been greatly dismayed at this most natural turn of events. The rest of the World simply cannot ignore India , the largest democracy and the fastest growing economic power anymore. This may be humiliating to UK as it has been one of the founding members of the United Nations and even the ICJ. However it was humiliating for India too being under British Rule for nearly 90 years ( 1857 to 1947 prior to that East India Company were just a DIWAN of the Mughal Emperor), a country just large enough to be a Union Territory or a smallish state of the Indian Union.
Justice Dalveer Bhandari’s victory over Britain’s candidate in the world court is a “humiliating blow” for the UK, the media said today, even as India magnanimously stated that the hard-fought race will not impact the bilateral ties.
In order to give a face saving cover to UK, Shri Dinesh Patnaik , Acting High Commissioner of India to UK also reiterated that diplomats of both countries had been in contact with each other from the very start, which reflects the strong bond between India and the UK. As per him a senior representative from the UK Foreign Office had been in contact from the beginning . He further added that both were friendly countries with similar legal systems in the running. The whole process has been very cordial and it will not impact the bilateral relationship in any way. Once agreed upon , then Just minutes after 11th round of voting was scheduled to begin in New York on Monday, a letter was released by the UK mission to the UN announcing that Sir Christopher Greenwood would accept defeat and allow his Indian rival to fill the vacancy in the UN s principal legal body based in The Hague.
However more than the people of England, it was the UK media which has been mentally devastated with this turn of events. The British tabloids have branded this vote as a sign of Britain’s eroding stature on the world stage. Well they have rightly noted that the decision to bow to the will of the UN General Assembly and accept India as a superior world power is nevertheless a humiliating blow to British self prestige and an acceptance of a diminished status in international affairs. Though this thing has been known to the entire world since last 15 years or more even though some of the Britishers were still trying to pretend otherwise. Thus unanimously, the UK media lamented as to what this defeat at the UN means for the UK ……amounting to a significant diplomatic setback and a symbol of Britain’s reduced status on the world stage.
For a change , at least BBC was candid enough to state that the Group of 77 which represents a coalition of developing nations has long been pushing for greater influence. The victory of India over the UK is thus a huge success for the G77 in pushing back against the traditional Western self styled Powers of the Security Council. Actually UK had no choice but to back off as it cannot continue to use its weak position in the UN Security Council , in spite of other members , to muscle its way in on important global affairs. In case it persists then it’s very membership in the Security Council may be at stake ……there should be no doubts regarding this. As rightly brought out by Independent , the failure to guarantee itself a place on the court of an organisation it helped to found has been interpreted as a sign of Uk’ s increasingly irrelevance on the world stage .
This thing has not come in one day but the stage was set right after the World War2 . Thus It is reflective of a wider chain of events triggered by many events one by one and the most recent being the vote for Brexit in last year European Union referendum, which has already lost London two prestigious EU institutions the European Banking Authority to Paris and the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam. However the ICJ blow hits harder as the UK was one of the founding members of the United Nations and has had a representative on the ICJ bench since its inception in 1946.
Actually Greenwood and Bhandari were both hoping to win re- election but the spoiler this time was Lebanon’s former ambassador who joined the race as an unexpected sixth candidate for the five slots. As things stood Lebanon had a secured place this time and voting was between India and UK for a place which traditionally used to be filled by an European Country . This time India simply asserted itself and results are there for all to see. Thus when Greenwood steps down at the end of his term early next year, it will reflect a shift in the balance of power at the UN away from the Security Council. So now let’s wait and see how long the Security Council functions without India as a Permanent Member ……once upon a time there was a League of Nations too.
In a statement, UK Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft said: “The UK has concluded that it is wrong to continue to take up the valuable time of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly with further rounds of elections.
We are naturally disappointed, but it was a competitive field with six strong candidates.” Some have also attributed Britain’s decision to remove itself from the race to the potential impact an intensified battle would have on the economic relationship between India and the UK.
