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Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

For our Singapore office, for client enquiries please contact our Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquiries@twentyessex.com
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

singapore@twentyessex.com
t: +65 62257230

Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

For our Singapore office, for client enquiries please contact our Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquiries@twentyessex.com
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

singapore@twentyessex.com
t: +65 62257230

05/02/2021

ICJ holds it has no jurisdiction over Qatar’s claims of racial discrimination against the UAE

On 4 February 2021, the International Court of Justice handed down judgment in respect of the preliminary objections raised by the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) in Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v United Arab Emirates).

The Court upheld the UAE’s first preliminary objection ratione materiae by an 11-6 majority. It concluded that it had no jurisdiction over any of Qatar’s claims that the UAE had breached the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The judgment is a landmark decision which provides important guidance as to the correct interpretation and application of the CERD and its proper scope of application, including in particular in respect of the central notion of “racial discrimination”.  Notably, the judgment clarifies that:

  • measures adopted by States solely on the basis of the current nationality of foreign nationals cannot per se be regarded as amounting to “racial discrimination” for the purposes of the definition of that concept contained in Article 1(1) CERD;
  • the CERD provides protection only to individuals, and does not apply to measures adopted in respect of corporations or other corporate bodies.

The proceedings were commenced by Qatar in June 2018 and have previously resulted in two requests for provisional measures. The judgment on preliminary objections is final and binding and brings the proceedings to a close.

Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC and Simon Olleson of Twenty Essex, together with Professor Mathias Forteau of the University of Paris Nanterre, acted on behalf of the UAE, assisting a team from the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Read the full judgment