India-Pakistan: Kulbhushan Jadhav case

India-Pakistan: Kulbhushan Jadhav case

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains II – India and its neighbours; International Relations

In news:

• Pakistan has claimed that former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is arrested on charges of espionage and terrorism in 2016, has refused to file an appeal against his April 2017 conviction. 

Background:

• India had moved the International Court of Justice in the same year for the “egregious violation” of the provisions of the Vienna Convention by Pakistan by repeatedly denying New Delhi consular access to Jadhav.
• ICJ had ruled that Pakistan should “review and reconsider” Kulbhushan Jadhav’s conviction and death sentence. 
• It also ruled that Indian government should be given consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Important Value Additions:

• ICJ is the “principled judicial organ of the United Nations” (ICJ, 1945), and is based at the Hague in the Netherlands.
• Statute of the International Court of Justice, which is an integral part of the United Nations Charter established the ICJ.
• The ICJ is made up of 15 jurists from different countries (elected to nine-year terms by Permanent members of the UNSC) and no two judges at any given time may be from the same country. The court’s composition is static but generally includes jurists from a variety of cultures.
• The function of the ICJ is to resolve disputes between sovereign states.