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Ahreum Lee (UN Correspondent)

Ahreum Lee is an Associate Legal Officer at the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, New York. She worked for the International Trade Law Division which functions as the Secretariat of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) based in Vienna, Austria. Prior to joining the United Nations, Ahreum worked as a case manager in the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva and interned at International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. She holds LL.B./LL.M. from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea and Master of Information Technology from Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Ahreum may be contacted at: ahreum.lee@un.org

News
  1. Case submitted to the International Court of Justice on Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan)On June 1, 2010, Australia instituted proceedings against for alleged breach of international obligations concerning whaling. Japan has been pursuing a large scale programme of whaling under the Second Phase of its Japanese Whale Research Programme under Special Permit in the Antarctic ("JARPA II"). Australia alleged that in implementing JARPA II programme in the Southern Ocean, Japan is breaching its obligation under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling ("ICRW") , in particular, paragraphs 7(b) and 10 (e) of the Schedule to the ICRW as well as its other international obligations for the preservation of marine mammals and marine environment such as Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
    Australia requested for the Court to adjudge and declare that Japan is in breach of its international obligation by implementing JARPA II and order that Japan (a) cease implementation of JARPA II; (b) revoke any authorisations, permits or licences allowing the activities which are the subject of this application to be undertaken; and (c) provide assurances and guarantees that it will not take any further action under the JARPA II or any similar programme until such programme has been brought into conformity with its obligations under international law.
    On July 20, 2010, the International Court of Justice ("ICJ"), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, fixed time-limits for the filing of the initial pleadings in the case concerning Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan). By an Order of July 13, 2010, the Court fixed May 9, 2011 as the time-limit for the filing of a Memorial by Australia and March 9, 2012 as the time-limit for the filing of a Counter-Memorial by Japan.
  2. On April 28, the Kingdom of Cambodia filed an Application requesting interpretation of the Judgment rendered on June 15, 1962 by ICJ in the case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand). The Application was accompanied by an urgent Request for the indication of provisional measures.
    First, in support of its Request for interpretation, Cambodia invoked Article 60 of the Statute of the Court and Article 98 of the Rules of Court. Cambodia requested the Court to adjudge and declare that "The obligation incumbent upon Thailand to 'withdraw any military or police forces, or other guards or keepers, stationed by her at the Temple, or in its vicinity on Cambodian territory' (point 2 of the operative clause [of the Judgment rendered by the Court in 1962]) is a particular consequence of the general and continuing obligation to respect the integrity of the territory of Cambodia, that territory having been delimited in the area of the Temple and its vicinity by the line on the map [referred to on page 21 of the Judgment], on which [the latter] is based."
    Second, pursuant to Article 41 of the Statute and Article 73 of the Rules of Court, Cambodia further requested the Court to indicate the provisional measures as follows: a) an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Thai forces from those parts of Cambodian territory situated in the area of the Temple of Preah Vihear; b) a ban on all military activity by Thailand in the area of the Temple of Preah Vihear; and c) that Thailand refrain from any act or action which could interfere with the rights of Cambodia or aggravate the dispute in the principal proceedings.
    On the matter of the request for indication of provisional measures, the Court held public hearings on Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 May where two rounds of oral observations were attended by both parties. Cambodia reiterated its request for the three provisional measures and Thailand requested the Court to remove the case introduced by the Kingdom of Cambodia on April 28, 2011 from the General List.
    On Monday July 18, 2011, the International Court of Justice delivered its Order in which it unanimously rejected Thailand's request for the case introduced by Cambodia to be removed from the General List. With respect to the provisional order, the Court a) decided that both Parties should immediately withdraw their military personnel currently present in the provisional demilitarized zone; b) that Thailand should not obstruct Cambodia's free access to the Temple of Preah Vihear, or prevent it from providing fresh supplies to its non-military personnel; and c) each of the Parties should inform it as to its compliance with the above provisional measures.

    3. Ms. Ahreum Lee(Associate Legal Officer at UNCITRAL)