Pictured Mr. Steven van Hoogstraten, Lindy Melman ( BRILL), prof. Nico Schrijver (Leiden U), judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (ICJ), Anneleen de Jong and Otto Spijkers.
By Sheila Turabaz.
The Peace Palace Library and the Carnegie Foundation organized a book launch, entitled ‘The Art of Making Peace; Lessons Learned from Peace Treaties’ on March 20 at the Peace Palace. Mr. Steven van Hoogstraten, former Director-General of the Carnegie Foundation, Professor of Public International Law at Leiden University Mr. Nico Schrijver, Mr. Otto Spijkers and Ms. Anneleen de Jong are the authors who have contributed to this book.
‘The Art of Making Peace; Lessons Learned from Peace Treaties’ is the reflection of a conference on the theme of peace-making held at the Peace Palace in 2013 during its centenary year. As the title says, the book focuses on peace agreements, such as The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 (that marked the end of the First World War), the Dayton Agreement of 1995 (which meant the end of the war in Yugoslavia) the Darfur Agreement of 2006 (contributing to peace in the Sudan) and the complex situations that arose during the Iran – Iraq War and the Kuwait – Iraq War.
In addition, the book also offers an analysis regarding the role of dispute settlement by the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration as opposed to political mediation between states with the assistance of a third party.
Additional Kim Vermaat’s pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/albums/72157682048673165
The book presentation included a speech by Mr. Van Hoogstraten, in which he mentioned the Treaty of Versailles and what Article 14 of the Treaty has meant for the growth of The Hague as a City of International Justice in particular: “Article 14 of the Treaty of Versailles stated that the Council of the to be created “League of Nations” would prepare a draft for a Permanent Court of International Justice.”
This resulted in the League of Nations settling in the premises of the Peace Palace in The Hague. Furthermore, he mentioned that “the dedication of the Peace Palace to the maxim “Peace through Law” could not be better expressed than through the words and deeds of the international judges. And since World War 2, this dedication has been shown for 70 years now by the International Court of Justice, and on an ever-continuing basis by the arbiters of the PCA”.
The first copy of the book was handed to Vice President and Judge H.E. Mr. Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf who accepted the book on behalf of the International Court of Justice. Judge Yusuf enthusiastically accepted the first copy and continued with a speech, in which he mentioned the importance of this book: “I come from a country that has not known peace for the past 27 years – Somalia –, so peace making is not only a personal occasion on me as a judge of the ICJ because that’s part of our work, it is also a constant concern to me, a daily concern, because of my background”.
Moreover, Judge Yusuf stated that “the nature of peace agreements do not mutually resolve all problems, but at least they create an atmosphere in which there is communication (…), it is in response to that mixed success of peace agreements, that this book tries to extract the lessons learned from past peace agreements that could be extracted to resolve future conflicts”.
H.E. Judge Mr. Ronny Abraham, President of the International Court of Justice, H.E. Judge Mr. Dalveer Bhandari, H.E. Mr. Philippe Couvreur, Registrar of the Court and other dignitaries were among those present at the book launch.
Afterwards, many guests attended the annual Shabtai Rosenne Memorial Lecture, which also took place in the Academy Building of the Peace Palace. Read more via the follow link: https://diplomatmagazine.eu/2017/03/22/sixth-shabtai-rosenne-memorial-lecture/.
