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International Court of Justice (ICJ) logo

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Principal judicial organ of the UN — state responsibility · The Hague, Netherlands · est. 1945

Judicial — binding rulings

Adjudicates disputes between states under the Genocide Convention (Bosnia v. Serbia, 2007; The Gambia v. Myanmar, ongoing). Its findings are the highest authority on state responsibility for genocide.

Financing

organization
Money source

Financed through the regular budget of the United Nations (assessed contributions from member states).

Institutional alignment

A UN organ. Fifteen judges elected by the UN General Assembly and Security Council.

Financing is shown to help readers weigh incentives and constraints. It is not a finding that the source is truthful or false.

Credibility & caveats

Rulings are binding between the parties, but jurisdiction depends on state consent, cases take years, and the Court rules on state responsibility — not individual guilt.

Membership & leadership

Fifteen judges are elected by absolute majorities in the UN General Assembly and Security Council (often concurrently) for nine-year terms; no two judges may be nationals of the same state. The president and vice-president are elected by the Court from among its members for three-year terms. There is no general membership — only elected judges and registry staff.

Leadership & members

Named individuals reflect leadership at the time of writing; linked names have individual profiles in this record. See membership & leadership above for how they are selected.

People profiled in this record

On the record

Verbatim quotations in this project attributed to this body or its officials.

  • “The acts committed at Srebrenica ... were committed with the specific intent to destroy in part the group of the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina as such; and accordingly ... these were acts of genocide.”

    Case: srebrenica →

Cases in this record

Sources & disclosures