Title: 

New Judges' Start Date and Current Judicial Composition

Courtesy of International Criminal Court
Author: 
Editors
Six newly-elected judges are set to take their place on the prestigious bench of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In 2017, ICC member states nominated 12 candidates for election to fill the six vacant judicial positions at the Court. The election took place at the 16th session of the Assembly of States Parties in December 2017. The election followed the Court’s regular judicial elections process, which replaces a third of the 18 judges’ bench every three years. The new judges, who were sworn in on 9 March 2018, will serve a nine-year term:

Ms. Tomoko Akane (Japan)

Ms. Luz del Carmen Ibañez Carranza( Peru)

Ms. Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda)

Ms. Kimberly Prost (Canada)

Mr. Rosario Salvatore Aitala (Italy)

Ms. Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin)

Each election term, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) campaigns for states to nominate and elect only the most highly-qualified and independent candidates to fill key positions within the Rome Statute system. A fair, transparent, and merit-based nomination and election process is crucial to ensuring both the International Criminal Court and the Assembly of States Parties function effectively and impartially.

For the 2017 ICC judicial elections, the Coalition campaigned in particular to ensure that female candidates were nominated by states to ensure fair gender representation on the ICC bench, as five of the six outgoing ICC judges are women. We urged states to seek out the very best and most qualified female candidates to uphold this fundamental standard.

As part of the campaign, the Coalition developed a fact sheet with important election background information (election procedure, minimum voting requirements, etc.). A dedicated questionnaire was also circulated to and completed by each judicial candidate. In September 2017, the Coalition organized panel discussions at the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs  with all of the candidates.

Visit here for more information about the Coalition’s extensive 2017 Judicial Elections campaign.

The Presidency of the Court, itself elected on 11 March 2018, subsequently assigned the new judges (in bold) to the three judicial divisions. The Presidency also recomposed a number of Chambers; dissolved Pre-Trial Chamber III as well as Trial Chamber V(a) and Trial Chamber V(b); and assigned the respective situations and cases currently before the Court to the remaining Chambers. The assignments as well as the re-composition of Chambers took effect on 20 March 2018.
 

(Of the six outgoing judges, five (in italics) are currently presiding over ongoing cases and thus will remain in their current positions for the duration of the trial/reparations proceedings: Judge Cuno Tarfusser, Judge Kuniko Ozaki, Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng, Judge Silvia Alejandra Fernández De Gurmendi, Judge Christine Van Den Wyngaert.)