International Organisations
The city contributes substantially to international politics: The Hague is home to over 150 international organisations. These include the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The foundation of The Hague as an "international city of peace and justice" was laid in 1899, when the world's first Peace Conference took place in The Hague on Tobias Asser's initiative, followed by a second in 1907. A direct result of these meetings was the establishment of the world's first organisation for the settlement of international disputes: the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). Shortly thereafter the Scottish-American millionaire Andrew Carnegie made the necessary funds available to build the Peace Palace ("Vredespaleis") to house the PCA.
After the establishment of the League of Nations, The Hague became the seat of the Permanent Court of International Justice, which was replaced by the UN's International Court of Justice after the Second World War. The establishment of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal (1981), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993) and the International Criminal Court (2002) in the city further consolidated the role of The Hague as a center for international legal arbitration. Most recently, on 1 March 2009, a U.N. tribunal to investigate and prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri opened in the former headquarters of the Netherlands General Intelligence Agency in Leidschendam, a town within the greater The Hague area.
The Hague is the fourth major centre for the UN, after New York, Geneva and Vienna. In line with the city's history as an important convention center and the current presence of institutions such as the ICJ, The Hague's city council employs a city branding strategy that aims to establish The Hague as the Legal Capital of the World and the International City of Peace and Justice.
Major international organisations based in The Hague include:
- Eurojust, European Union body composed of national prosecutors
- European Police Office, (Europol)
- Hague Academy of International Law, center for high-level education in both public and private international law
- Hague Conference on Private International Law, (HCCH), the oldest and preeminent private international law harmonisation institution
- International Court of Justice, located in the Peace Palace
- International Criminal Court, (ICC)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, (ICTY)
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR, appeals court only). The tribunal itself is in Arusha, Tanzania.
- Iran-United States Claims Tribunal
- Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
- NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency, (NC3A)
- Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, (OPCW)
- Permanent Court of Arbitration, the oldest institution for international dispute resolution.
- The European Library
Many academic institutions in the fields of international relations, international law and international development are based in The Hague. The Hague Academic Coalition (HAC) is a consortium of those institutions.
Its member institutions are:
- Carnegie Foundation
- Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL)
- International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS)
- Leiden University College The Hague
- Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael'
- The Hague Academy of International Law
- The Hague University of Applied Sciences (Haagse Hogeschool)
- T.M.C. Asser Instituut
In 1948 The Hague Congress was held with 750 delegates from 26 European countries, providing them with the opportunity to discuss ideas about the development of the European Union.
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