United Nations stresses separation from Hague tribunal
The Permanent Court of Arbitration rents space in the same building as the UN’s International Court of Justice, but the two organisations are not related
The United Nations clarified on its Chinese microblog yesterday that the tribunal that ruled against China’s historic claims over the disputed South China Sea was not a UN agency.
The statement came amid apparent public misunderstanding of the tribunal’s operations.
The UN said the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which issued the decision on the case on Tuesday, operated out of the same building, the Peace Palace, as the UN’s primary justice branch, the International Court of Justice, but the two agencies were unrelated.
“The UN makes donations to the Carnegie Foundation (the building’s owner) every year for using the building,” the UN post said.
“Another renter of the Peace Palace is the Permanent Court of Arbitration established in 1899, but [it] has nothing to do with the UN.”
The post came a day after the tribunal dismissed China’s sweeping claims to contested waters in the South China Sea, adding that it violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights by building artificial islands and caused irreparable harm to the coral reef ecosystem.
