Some Western media, in an attempt to underline the authority of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), have mistakenly claimed that the court is backed by the United Nations, which is not true.
The United Nations made it clear on Wednesday that it has nothing to do with the PCA in The Hague, which issued an ill-founded award on Tuesday through the abuse of law on the arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines against China in 2013.
In a post on its official Twitter-like Sina Weibo account, the United Nations pointed out that the International Court of Justice is the UN's principal judicial organ, which was set up in June 1945 in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
In fact, the PCA in The Hague just happens to be the neighbor of the International Court of Justice, both located in the Peace Palace in The Hague in the Netherlands.
Of the six major organs of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice is the only one located outside the New York City of the United States, the headquarters of the United Nations.
On the other side, the PCA, established in 1899, writes on its official website that "unlike the International Court of Justice," the Permanent Court of Arbitration "has no sitting judges" and its sessions "are held in private and are confidential."
After the Philippines submitted the Notification and Statement of Claim to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on Jan. 22, 2013, a five-member arbitral tribunal was created by then ITLOS president and former Japanese ambassador to the United States Shunji Yanai.
