Title: 

Join our panel discussion with ICC judicial candidates - 18 Sept @ 10.00 CET

12 candidates are vying for six spots to become ICC judges in 2017 © CICC
Author: 
Coalition Secretariat
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is pleased to invite you to the live streaming of three panel discussions with the twelve candidates vying for judicial election to the ICC bench. The event takes place from 10.00 CET on 18 September 2017 in The Hague. The event will be broadcast live on this website and on YouTube.

As part of its long-standing Campaign on ICC Elections, the Coalition is hosting the panel discussions to give representatives of states, civil society and the wider public an opportunity to learn more about the qualifications, experience, and expectations for international justice of all the candidates nominated for election to the position of ICC judge at the 16th Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute in December 2017.

ICC member states Lesotho, Uganda, Croatia, Mongolia, Benin, Japan, Bosnia, Peru, Uruguay, Canada, Ghana and Italy have nominated 12 candidates for election to six soon-to-be vacant judicial positions at The Hague-based Court.

The election follows the Court’s regular judicial elections process, which replaces a third of the 18 judges’ bench every three years. The new judges will serve a nine-year term from March 2018.

The Coalition for the ICC as a whole does not endorse or oppose any individual candidates, but rather campaigns for states to nominate and elect highly-qualified and independent candidates to key positions in the Rome Statute system through fair, transparent, and merit-based nomination and election processes. 

Governments must elect the best leaders to the ICC to ensure effective and impartial justice. The Coalition strongly opposes reciprocal political agreements (“vote-trading”) in all ICC and ASP elections.

To ensure that the ICC bench is representative of gender, geographical representation and legal expertise, each judicial election has minimum voting requirements (MVRs). The following MVRs are in place in 2017: five female candidates; one from Asia-Pacific; one from Africa; one from Latin America and the Caribbean; one with specific expertise in criminal law and procedure (“List A”); and one with specific expertise in international law (“List B”). At least double these numbers need to be nominated.

As five of the six outgoing ICC judges are women, the Coalition campaigned to ensure that female candidates were nominated by states to ensure fair gender representation on the ICC bench.

The Coalition has also requested each judicial candidate to complete a questionnaire on their background, qualifications, experience and views relating to their candidacy. 

All nominating states additionally submitted a short overview of the national nomination process for ICC judicial election candidates.

For more information, questionnaires and other documentation, please visit: http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/fight/icc-elections-2017.