Bangladeshi in PCA: In Brief

The PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration) was the first permanent intergovernmental organization to provide a forum for the resolution of international disputes through arbitration and other peaceful means. The PCA was established by the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, concluded in The Hague in 1899 during the first Hague Peace Conference. The 1899 Convention was revised at the second Hague Peace Conference in 1907. The PCA provides services for the resolution of disputes involving various combinations of states, state entities, intergovernmental organizations, and private parties.

The PCA has 122 Contracting Parties, which have acceded to one or both of the PCA’s founding conventions – 1899 Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes; 1907 Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. Bangladesh ratified the 1907 Convention for the Pacific Settlement International Disputes on 28 December 2011 and it came into force for Bangladesh on 26 February 2012.

The PCA has a three-part organizational structure – Administrative Council that oversees its policies and budgets, a panel of independent potential arbitrators known as the Members of the Court, and its Secretariat, known as the International Bureau. Contracting Parties’ diplomatic representatives accredited to The Netherlands comprise the Administrative Council, under the chairmanship of the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs. Bangladesh Embassy in The Hague serves as a member of the PCA’s Administrative Council and plays an active role in overseeing PCA’s policies and budgetary issues. 

Justice Md. Tofazzal Islam, former Chief Justice of Bangladesh; Justice Md. Awlad Ali, former Judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid, former Judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and a former Chairman of Bangladesh Law Commission; and Dr. Payam Akhavan, Professor of International Law at McGill University of Canada have been appointed as the ‘Members of the Court’ of the PCA for 6 (six) years as nominees of Bangladesh. 

Bangladesh and India settled their maritime boundary delimitation at the PCA in 2014.