In the picture H.E. Mr Million Samuel Gebre, Ambassador of Ethiopia, H.E. Ms Hissa Abdulla Ahmed Alotaiba, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, H.E. Ms. Maria Isabel Gomes, Ambassador of Angola, H.E. Mr. Lounès Magramane, Ambassador of Algeria.
H.E. Ms. Laura Dupuys Lasserre, Ambassador of Uruguay, H.E. Mr. Nicolas P. Plexidas, Ambassador of Greece, H.E. Ms Kateřina Sequensová, Ambassador of Czeck Republic, Mr Hidehisa Horinouchi, Ambassador of Japan and Mrs. Sabine Horinouchi, H.E. Mr Amaral Sumith Nakandala, Ambassador of Sri Lanka.
H.E. Mr. Jorge Skinner-Klée Arenales, Ambassador of Guatemala, Mr. Erik de Baedts, H.E. Prof Esther Munalula Nkandu, Ambassador of Zambia and H. E. Ms Dubravka Plejic Markovic, Ambassador of Croatia.
By Roy Lie Atjam.
The Peace Palace was the venue for an extraordinary welcome ceremony of newly arrived ambassadors. The ceremony took place on Monday 9 December 2019 and was organized by the Carnegie Foundation and Diplomat Magazine.
Featured on the program were the ambassadors who presented their credentials to HM King Willem Alexander in late 2019.
Among those attendance of this special welcome ceremony was the Ambassadors of Angola, Croatia, Czech Republic, UAE, Qatar, Japan, Algeria, Greece, Zambia, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Uruguay and Ethiopia, just to mention a few.
The Ambassadors were cordially welcomed by Mr. Erik de Baedts, General Director of the Carnegie Foundation- Peace Palace and Treasurer of the Hague Academy of International Law and Dr. Mayelinne De Lara, Publisher of the Diplomat Magazine.
The program also featured a tour of the Peace Palace. The director took his guests on a tour of the palace and provided them with detailed information. The tour included the Grand court room, Japanese Room and the small court room.
It concluded near the gallery in the huge Russian Vase Room with a speech by the director, followed by a toast and group picture on the marble staircase.
The harpist Carla Bos entertained the guests at the event with her stirring performance. Furthermore, the Peace Palace with its beautiful gardens and carillion provided the perfect ambience for what was indeed a pleasant afternoon, and everyone at the event left the venue in high spirits.
Brief history of the Peace Palace.
In 1900 the Russian diplomat Friedrich Martens and the American diplomat Andrew Dickson White proposed to build a “peace palace” in The Hague. International disputes should be legally reviewed there. This had already been discussed at the Peace Conference in that city.
The American had persuaded his friend in the United States, benefactor Andrew Carnegie, to finance the construction. Carnegie (1835-1919) was a steel magnate who had sold his companies in 1901 for 485 million dollars. He did not use that money for his relatives, because “they started arguing about it”, but for improving the world. “A man who dies rich, dies in shame,” was his motto. He donated 2,509 libraries and the only Peace Palace in the world.
The International Court of Justice ICJ
The Court has had its seat in the Peace Palace in The Hague since 1946. From 1922, its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice, occupied the same premises, made available to it by the Carnegie Foundation, which owns and administers the edifice.
Built between 1907 and 1913 for the Permanent Court of Arbitration thanks to a donation from Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-born industrialist who made his fortune in the United States, the Peace Palace is situated in seven hectares of parkland in the heart of the city.
The granite, sandstone and red-brick building designed by the French architect Louis Cordonnier and topped by an imposing roof of greyish slate is in a predominantly neo-renaissance style. The facade, overlooking the lawns, features a series of figures that evoke justice and peace. On the left, the clock tower with its chimes rises to a height of 80 metres. Inside, woodwork, stained-glass windows, mosaics, tapestries and art objects presented by the States which participated in the Hague Peace Conferences reflect the diversity of the world’s cultures.
A museum of the history and work of the institutions housed in the Peace Palace was inaugurated in May 1999 by Mr. Kofi Annan and Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, the then United Nations Secretary-General and President of the Court respectively. It is situated in the southern wing of twing of the building.
Hosting the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice, the Palace is home to one of the world’s largest libraries of public international law (the Peace Palace Library, which is public, unlike the Court’s library) and hosts the summer courses of The Hague Academy of International Law.
Guided tours take place on weekends and during holidays.
