Hon’ble Mr Justice Adil Ahmed Abdullahi delivering address at the 8th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World

Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Jagdish Ghandi, Founder Manager of City Montessori School and his Colleagues for inviting the president of the Supreme Court of the FDRE, Hon'ble Kemaal Bedri to attend this important Conference. Unfortunately H.E could not attend due to other pressing commitment back home. He sends his greetings and good wishes to the conference and kindly requested me to attend on his behalf which is a very great honour for me to attend it.

Ethiopia which was a member of the League of Nations and is one of the only two founding independent African Nations to the UN was a victim of naked aggression by the then Italian Fascist Regime in 1930's.

The League of Nations which was created after the First World War aimed to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by submitting the disputes that might arise between member states or states not members to the league to arbitration or enquiry before going to war, So that war never broke out again.

However the practice was something different from what member states had pledged themselves not to go to war which lead to the outbreak of World War II leading to the deaths of millions of people and which brought untold sorrow to mankind.

The League of Nations which was unable to stand for the values enshrined under the convent became obsolute and ceased to exist in 1946.

The existing International organization, United Nations which was established after the 2nd world war with the purpose of maintaining international peace and security by taking effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace, is also not in a position to enforce its resolution against powerful nations.

More over recently we witnessed some super powers ignoring the objections of the S.C as well as General Assembly and took unilateral actions against a sovereign state violating the basic principles for which the UN itself is standing for.

At this stage It is better to ask what measures shall be considered to make the UN more effective and live up to its principles and purpose. We know reform of UN is being discussed at different levels. One of the issues is being raised is brooading the member of permanent council member. The reform should not be limited in broading the member of S.C. Revising the power of General Assembly as well as revising Jurisdiction of the ICJ should also be considered.

ICJ's jurisdiction under the current situation and accordance with its statute is solely based on the consent of the parties to a dispute. This kind of arrangement is not helping in creating peace and security in the world. It should have compulsory jurisdiction to settle any disputes that might arise between member states. Its ruling also should be binding on a party and be given a power to enforce its ruling. In so doing we will be in a position to strength the role of ICJ which will create a favorable condition in enforcing international law.

Thank you