The World Court on Monday rejected a World Health Organization request to rule on the legality of nuclear weapons, saying WHO can only deal with issues of public health - not international law.
The decision by the world's most prestigious legal body foreshadowed a major disappointment to anti-nuclear groups and states that hoped to use the U.N. court as a launching pad for a worldwide campaign to ban the weaponry.In dismissing the WHO request, court president Mohammed Bed-jaoui said the World Health organization is not empowered to seek an opinion "outside the scope of its jurisdiction."
The judges' refusal to consider the issue tended to buttress the arguments of nuclear weapons states, with all the self-declared nuclear powers except China arguing that the bomb has brought peace through nuclear deterrence. Beijing took no position.
"Whether nuclear weapons are used legally or illegally," the Algerian judge told the packed courtroom at the Peace Palace, "their effects on health would be the same."
During hearings late last year, representatives of the United States, Britain and France warned the court to stay out of the issue, saying that even a non-binding advisory opinion would undermine ongoing nuclear disarmament negotiations.