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ICJ Ruling Vote Breakdown
The vote count among the 14-member panel of the International Court of Justice.
Primary Sources
United Nations' top court says right to strike is protected by a key ...
3 hours ago ... THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations' top court issued a landmark advisory opinion on the right to strike on Thursday, finding that a ...
United Nations' top court says right to strike is protected by a key ...
THE HAGUE — The United Nations’ top court issued a landmark advisory opinion on the right to strike on Thursday, finding that a cornerstone labor treaty protects the ability of workers to walk off the job.The International Court of Justice was asked in 2023 by the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, to settle an internal dispute over whether one of the ILO’s conventions gives workers the right to strike.Advisory opinions aren’t legally binding, but carry significant weight. The decision could have a worldwide impact on labor regulations, enshrining the right to strike in labor standards and international trade agreements.Labor unions welcomed the decision.“As any trade unionist will tell you, there is no right to organize without the right to strike!” Christy Hoffman, general-secretary of UNI Global Union, said in a statement after the opinion was announced. “The two are inseparable foundations of any functional and fair industrial relations system. Congratulations to the many advocates who argued the point so brilliantly before the ICJ.”The word “strike” never appears in the 1948 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, but the ICJ’s 14 judges found walkout actions are covered under the other guarantees.“The protection of the right to strike is encompassed in the freedom of association,” court president Yuji Iwasawa said, reading out the ruling in the Great Hall of Justice in The Hague.The convention has been ratified by 158 countries and is incorporated into a variety of employment guidelines and standards, including those from the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and various international trade agreements.The United States is a member of the ILO, but hasn’t ratified the convention.International labor law expert Paul van der Heijden said that the advisory opinion from the ICJ gives workers an important tool when their actions face legal opposition. This decision “is important when you go to court,” he told The Associated Press.The judges were careful to note that in some cases, the right to strike may be restricted. The opinion “does not entail any determination on the precise content, scope or conditions for the exercise of that right,” Iwasawa said.A number of U.N. agencies can ask the ICJ to weigh in on legal questions and issue advisory opinions. Last year, the court said in a landmark advisory opinion that countries could be in violation of international law, if ...
United Nations' top court says right to strike is protected by a key ...
Skip to main contentTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court issued a landmark advisory opinion on the right to strike on Thursday, finding that a cornerstone labor treaty protects the ability of workers to walk off the job.The International Court of Justice was asked in 2023 by the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, to settle an internal dispute over whether one of the ILO's conventions gives workers the right to strike.Advisory opinions aren't legally binding, but carry significant weight. The decision could have a worldwide impact on labor regulations, enshrining the right to strike in labor standards and international trade agreements.Labor unions welcomed the decision.“As any trade unionist will tell you, there is no right to organize without the right to strike!" Christy Hoffman, general-secretary of UNI Global Union, said in a statement after the opinion was announced. "The two are inseparable foundations of any functional and fair industrial relations system. Congratulations to the many advocates who argued the point so brilliantly before the ICJ."The word “strike” never appears in the 1948 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, but the ICJ’s 14 judges found walkout actions are covered under the other guarantees.“The protection of the right to strike is encompassed in the freedom of association,” court president Yuji Iwasawa said, reading out the ruling in the Great Hall of Justice in The Hague.The convention has been ratified by 158 countries and is incorporated into a variety of employment guidelines and standards, including those from the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and various international trade agreements.The United States is a member of the ILO, but hasn’t ratified the convention.International labor law expert Paul van der Heijden said that the advisory opinion from the ICJ gives workers an important tool when their actions face legal opposition. This decision “is important when you go to court,” he told The Associated Press.The judges were careful to note that in some cases, the right to strike may be restricted. The opinion “does not entail any determination on the precise content, scope or conditions for the exercise of that right,” Iwasawa said.A number of U.N. agencies can ask the ICJ to weigh in on legal questions and issue advisory opinions. Last year, the court said in a landmark advisory opinion that countries could be ...
Top UN court says right to strike protected in key labour treaty
The International Court of Justice had been asked to deliver a so-called advisory opinion on whether an ILO treaty from 1948, known as Convention 87, implicitly enshrined workers' right to strike.ICJ president Yuji Iwasawa said the court was "of the opinion that the right to strike of workers and their organisations is protected" under that convention.However, judges said their opinion, which is not binding, should not be understood as laying out any other ground rules for strike action.The conclusion "does not entail any determination on the precise content, scope or conditions for the exercise of that right", said Iwasawa.ILO Convention 87 is an agreement between unions and employers including the right "in full freedom, to organise their administration and activities".Heated legal battleUnions at the ILO had argued that this by extension enshrined the right to industrial action, but employers disagreed, so they took the fight to the ICJ.Behind the dry legal interpretation of a decades-old treaty lay a heated battle between unions and employer groups at the ILO, which played out in hearings in October 2025."This case is about more than legal abstractions," Harold Koh, representing the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), told the judges. "It will affect the real rights of tens of millions of working people around the world," he added.Koh warned that if the ICJ ruled the right to strike was not inherent in the Convention, companies and governments could start to unpick labour deals around the world."National employer groups would contest the right to strike country by country, focusing first on nations with compliant courts, weak civil societies and ineffective media," said Koh.'Inflammatory and alarmist'On the other side of the argument, Roberto Suarez Santos, from the International Organisation of Employers, said the 1948 convention "neither explicitly nor implicitly covers the right to strike."Santos noted that the rules surrounding industrial action varied widely from country to country -- whether emergency services were excluded, for example.These differences "cannot be resolved by simply reading an abstract right to strike into Convention No.87 and trying to impose it on employers, workers and governments", said Santos.Rita Yip, also representing the employers' groups, dismissed the union arguments as "inflammatory and alarmist".The right to strike is still protected in national laws, argued Yip, and does not need to be enshrined in "boil...
