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Taking into consideration the broad jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), human rights have in several occasions been subject of cases before the Court. However, in a strict sense of the term the ICJ is not a court of human rights. This is because the Court under Article 34 of its Statute is to decide disputes between States. Moreover, it may give advisory opinions only on the questions that are brought to it by the authorized bodies specified in the United Nations Charter. Therefore, no individual, company, nongovernmental and even governmental organization has direct access to the Court.
This article presents a legal analysis of the World Court jurisprudence on human rights issues in brief. It argues that despite article 34, the Court in many instances played a crucial role in the development of the international law of human rights in the contemporary use of the term. In particular, the Court’s decisions on universal character of human rights worth mentioning.