Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has elected Judge Nawaf Salam, a native of Lebanon, to be the President and Judge Julia Sebutinde from Uganda to be the Vice-President of the court, respectively. They both have three-year terms coming up.
The ICJ announced these developments in news releases on Wednesday, February 6.
Following the retirement of Judge Joan E. Donoghue (United States of America), who was elected to the position on February 8, 2021, Judge Salam took up the charge of the President.
Judge Salam has served as an ICJ member since February 6, 2018. From July 2007 to December 2017, he served as Lebanon’s Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the UN in New York before being elected to the Court.
Along with them, four new judges have been elected as Judges of the ICJ. Judge Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo (Mexico), Judge Sarah H. Cleveland (USA), Judge Bogdan-Lucian Aurescu (Romania) and Judge Dire Tladi (South Africa) are the new members of the Court. Their nine-year terms of office started on February 6th, 2024.
Judge Sebutinde joined the ICJ on February 6, 2012. She served as a judge at the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2005 to 2011. She recently made headlines for issuing a dissenting opinion in the South African case that was brought before the ICH alleging that Israel had violated the Genocide Convention in the Gaza Strip.
The majority of the ICJ bench decided on January 26 to uphold the extension of interim measures to safeguard Palestinian rights in the Gaza Strip, concluding that it was “plausible” that Israel was violating their rights under the Prevention of Genocide Convention. Judge Sebutinde, however, believed that the Israel-Palestine conflict was not a legal matter that could be resolved by the Court and instead required a diplomatic or negotiated conclusion. She called South Africa’s petition a “desperate bid” to compel a case to be heard in accordance with a treaty in order to facilitate its judicial settlement.
Click here to access the press release on Judge Nawaf Salam’s election as President.
Click here to access the press release on Judge Julia Sebutinde’s election as Vice-President.