S/PV.7304 Security Council

In accordance with Article 11 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, the Security Council will now proceed to hold this eighth meeting to elect a member of the International Court of Justice by further ballot for the one seat that remains to be filled. May I take it that the Council is now ready to proceed with the election of the one remaining member of the International Court of Justice? It is so decided. The Council will now proceed to a new ballot. I request the Conference Officer to distribute the ballot papers.

Members of the Council should place an “X” in the box next to the name of the one candidate for whom they wish to vote. I remind members of the Council that only those candidates whose names appear on the ballot papers are eligible for election. Ballots containing votes for more than one candidate will be considered invalid. * * *

I take it that all the members of the Council have now voted and I ask the Conference Officer to collect the ballot papers. * * *

All the ballot papers have been collected. I should like to remind Council members that, in accordance with the established practice, the ballots will not be counted until it has been verified that the ballot papers in the General Assembly have also been collected. The Council will remain in session pending the receipt of that information. * * *

The result of the voting is as follows: Number of ballot papers: 15 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 15 Number of abstentions: 0 Required majority: 8 Number of votes obtained: Ms. Susana Ruiz Cerutti 9 Mr. Patrick Lipton Robinson 6 Accordingly, Ms. Susana Ruiz Cerutti has received the required majority of votes in the Security Council. I have communicated the result of the voting to the President of the General Assembly in writing. I should like to inform the Council that I have received from the President of the General Assembly the following letter: “I have the honour to inform you that, at the 46th plenary meeting of the General Assembly, held today for the purpose of electing the one remaining seat of the five members of the International Court of Justice, the following candidate obtained an absolute majority of votes in the General Assembly: Mr. Patrick Lipton Robinson.” Accordingly, no candidate has received the required absolute majority of votes both in the Council and in the General Assembly. I understand that the President of the General Assembly has proposed that the Assembly end its meeting and reconvene at 3 p.m. on Monday, 17 November, to hold the next ballot. I propose that, with the consent of the members of the Council, we proceed in the same manner and reconvene at 3 p.m. on Monday, 17 November, to hold a new ballot. It is so decided. Before I adjourn the meeting, I should like to use the role of the presidency to briefly remind ourselves of what we are doing. It is true that these elections are a baroque process, but we must not forget that the International Court of Justice is one of the world’s primary institutions for the peaceful settlement of disputes and the rule of law. The maintenance of international peace and security is of course the fundamental responsibility of the Security Council; it is why we exist and why we are sitting here today. All Member States are sovereign and have the right to stand for election to both of these bodies and others. We all take this very seriously. A process such as this is simply a reflection of the importance of the principles by which the international community that we represent has organized itself to preserve peace and security. I know that sounds a little elevated, but I think it is useful at the end of a process such as this, which has been quite protracted and is by no means concluded, that we remind ourselves of exactly what we are doing. It is a great deal more than just a baroque process of filling in ballot papers and sitting around doing other things. I therefore thank everyone for their patience over the past couple of days, but it is important that we do it. I thank the interpreters and the conference staff for all their assistance.