sign Agreement on establishment of Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)
16 April 2007
South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the Secretary
General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration will sign an Agreement on the
Establishment of a Facility for Africa at the Presidential Guesthouse in
Pretoria on Tuesday, 17 April 2007.
The PCA was established in 1899 in The Hague as the first global institution
to promote the peaceful settlement of disputes between states. South Africa
became a Member State of the PCA in 1997 by acceding to the Convention for the
Pacific Settlement of International Disputes.
The PCA offers facilities, professional administration and expert guidance
with regard to four of the dispute settlement methods provided for in Article
33 of the UN Charter, namely enquiry, mediation, conciliation and arbitration.
Originally it focused only on the settlement of inter-State disputes, but has
since extended its facilities to cases involving non-State parties, and can
consequently now assist in settling disputes between a State and for example, a
foreign investor. The PCA has over the last decades experienced a considerable
increase in caseload, which now involves investment and contract disputes,
maritime delimitation, international boundaries, banking and finance,
international humanitarian law and environmental law. The advantage of using
arbitration as a method of dispute settlement over judicial proceedings is that
the arbitration proceedings are cheaper and quicker, more flexible and offer a
greater degree of autonomy to the parties to the dispute as they can choose the
arbitrators and the rules and procedures to be applied.
In order to expand their services geographically, the PCA has opened a
Regional Facility for the Promotion of Dispute Resolution through the
Mechanisms of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Costa Rica in order to meet
the demands of the Latin American region.
The PCA expressed the desire to establish a regional facility for the
Promotion of Dispute Resolution through the Mechanisms of the Permanent Court
of Arbitration in South Africa to service the African continent. The Agreement
provides for the establishment of a Regional Facility for the Promotion of
Dispute Resolution through the Mechanisms of the Permanent Court of Arbitration
in South Africa, to function on an ad hoc basis.
It is considered that the establishment of a regional facility for Africa in
South Africa will be a positive development, in view thereof that it will offer
an alternative way of dispute settlement besides judicial settlement as offered
by domestic and international courts, like the International Court of Justice
and the African Court of Justice.
Media are invited for the signing ceremony as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Time: 15h30 for 16h00
Venue: Presidential Guesthouse, Bryntirion Estate, Church Street (Gate 9),
Pretoria.
Please present press cards, reserve place.
Enquiries:
Manusha Pillai
Cell: 082 389 3587
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
16 April 2007
