The International Court of Justice (ICJ), established in 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The ICJ is one of the six principal organs of the UN. Seated at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the ICJ is the only UN principal organ that is not located in New York. The Court is guided by the Statute of the ICJ and consists of 1 Registrar and 15 Judges, two being the President and Vice President. The members of the Court are elected to nine-year terms by the General Assembly and Security Council. It has two official languages: English and French.

The ICJ is not a criminal court. The Court has no jurisdiction over individual crimes, instead, it deals with the legal disputes between Member States. Overall, the ICJ has two duties: “settling legal disputes submitted to it by States” and “giving advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.”.