ANDREJEVA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION 55 examine the compatibility of the contested provisions of the national law with the Convention in isolation from the wider context (see points 18-19 above). Finally, one wonders how the Court’s choice to refer to the alleged Soviet realities in such a way as to arrive at the conclusion that the distinction was not justified complies with the general principle of ex injuria non jus oritur and the obligation of non-recognition of an unlawful situation as legal in international law. 36. If, as a matter of law, we take into account that (a) the presence of the Soviet Union in the territory of Latvia was unlawful, being contrary to several rules of international law, and (b) that certain well-known principles applicable in situations of occupation (for example, Article 49 § 6 of Geneva Convention (IV) of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War) prohibit not only deportations or forced transfers of the population, such as those carried out by the USSR during the Second World War, but also any measures taken by an occupying power in order to organise or encourage transfers of parts of its own population into the occupied territory (see Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports 2004, § 120), then references to the alleged equality of Soviet citizens, similarity of careers and the assumption that the applicant’s closest ties are with Latvia simply do not meet the challenge of this case. It is true that there is not an international convention as concerns the content of the nonrecognition obligation, especially as it may be relevant in the evaluation of claims to pensions put forward in circumstances similar to those at issue in this case. There are, however, important examples of State practice and judicial decisions, including the Court’s own, which could serve as guidance. 37. In terms of international law it is commonly known that the Latvian SSR was an illegal creation and was subject to the non-recognition rule on the part of third States. There is an obligation not to recognise “official acts performed” by the Soviet Union “on behalf or concerning” the Latvian SSR. Such acts are illegal and invalid (see, mutatis mutandis, Namibia (SouthWest Africa), Advisory Opinion, cited above, § 125). One can also note several cases decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union in which it recognised that only acts of the Republic of Cyprus instead of the acts of the authorities in the northern part of Cyprus had legal consequences under Community law (see, for example, Case C-432/92, § 40). The pension for the applicant’s work during the Soviet period was promised to her by the Soviet Union. This promise, the alleged equality of Soviet citizens and her move to the Latvian SSR for residence purposes cannot serve, if international law is taken seriously, as a basis for the Court’s argument that the Republic of Latvia ought to have extended full pension advantages to non-citizens in Latvia.