A.
Objection alleging that the Application infringes national sovereignty
17. The Respondent State maintains that the present Application violates its
sovereignty, as provided for in Article 1 of its Constitution.2 According to the
Respondent State, the principle of sovereignty is embodied in its exclusive
freedom to manage internal and external affairs.
18. The Respondent State further contends that this sovereignty enshrines the
three functions of State authority, namely the executive, legislative and
judicial functions, endowed with a presumption of legitimacy which
empowers it to take all necessary decisions in accordance with the laws and
provisions in force.
19. The Respondent State also points out that non-interference is held to be
one of the cardinal principles of public international law on which the
functioning of international bodies and tribunals is based, as set out in
Article 2(7) of the Charter of the United Nations,3 which is one of the Court’s
legal sources, alongside the UDHR and the Charter.
20. According to the Respondent State, any interference in its internal affairs
will result in total or partial loss of its sovereignty over its nationals, its
political choices, including the promulgation of laws, the sanctions for
violations thereof and the freedom to exploit its natural resources.
21. Finally, the Respondent State asserts that the judiciary’s core function is to
ensure compliance with national laws and international treaties to which it
is a party in accordance with Article 117 of its Constitution. It further submits
that these functions are at the heart of the internal authority of the State and
that no one has the right to intervene in this area.
*
Article 1 of the Respondent State’s Constitution: “Tunisia is a free, independent and sovereign State”.
Article 2(7) of the United Nations Charter provides: “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall
authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction
of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter;
[...]”.
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3
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