Six judges of the International Criminal Court were elected during the 13th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court scheduled for 8 to 17 December 2014 in New York. The judges were elected for terms of nine years and took office on 11 March 2015.

Background

Song Sang-Hyun, then President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was one of six judges whose terms expired on 11 March 2015.

The judges elected at this session replaced those six judges which were elected at the second election of ICC judges in 2006 for a full term of nine years; they will also serve for nine years until 2024.

The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:

  • (i) The representation of the principal legal systems of the world;
  • (ii) Equitable geographical representation; and
  • (iii) A fair representation of female and male judges."

Furthermore, article 36(3)(b) and 36(5) provide for two lists:

  • List A contains those judges that "[h]ave established competence in criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in other similar capacity, in criminal proceedings";
  • List B contains those who "[h]ave established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court".

Each candidate has to belong to exactly one list.

Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.[1]

Judges remaining in office

As of August 2014, the following judges are scheduled to remain in office beyond 2015:

Judge Country   Lists A or B   Regional criteria   Gender
List A List B African Asian E. European GRULAG WEOG Female Male
Joyce Aluoch  Kenya X X X
Miriam Defensor Santiago  Philippines X X X
Chile Eboe-Osuji  Nigeria X X X
Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi  Argentina X X X
Robert Fremr  Czech Republic X X X
Geoffrey A. Henderson  Trinidad and Tobago X X X
Olga Venecia Herrera Carbuccia  Dominican Republic X X X
Sanji Mmasenono Monageng  Botswana X X X
Howard Morrison  United Kingdom X X X
Kuniko Ozaki  Japan X X X
Cuno Tarfusser  Italy X X X
Christine van den Wyngaert  Belgium X X X
       
9 3 3 2 1 3 3 7 5

Nomination process

Following these rules, the nomination period of judges for the 2014 election lasts from 28 April to 20 July 2014. It was extended once due to the lack of candidates from Asia until 3 August 2014. The following persons were nominated as of 4 August 2014:[2]

Name Nationality List A or B Region Gender
Reine Alapini-Gansou BeninList BAfricaFemale
Abdelkader Ben Ali Bahloul TunisiaList AAfricaMale
Emmanuel Yaw Benneh GhanaList BAfricaMale
Toma Birmontienė LithuaniaList BEastern EuropeFemale
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant BrazilList BLatin America and CaribbeanMale
Chung Chang-ho South KoreaList AAsiaMale
Zlata Đurđević CroatiaList BEastern EuropeFemale
Pavel Gontšarov EstoniaList AEastern EuropeMale
Piotr Hofmański PolandList AEastern EuropeMale
Péter Kovács HungaryList BEastern EuropeMale
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua Democratic Republic of the CongoList BAfricaMale
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira Timor-LesteList AAsiaFemale
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut FranceList BWestern Europe and OthersMale
Harimahefa Ratiaraisoa MadagascarList BAfricaFemale
Bertram Schmitt GermanyList AWestern Europe and OthersMale
Krister Hans Thelin SwedenList AWestern Europe and OthersMale
Mindia Ugrekhelidze GeorgiaList AEastern EuropeMale

Minimum voting requirements

Minimum voting requirements govern part of the election. This is to ensure that article 36(8)(a) cited above was fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements will exist; they will be adjusted once the election is underway.

Assuming that there is no change in the bench, the voting requirements will be as follows:

Criterion Number of judges required Number of judges remaining in office Ex ante voting requirement Current number of candidates Adjusted voting requirement Adjusted voting requirement equals ex ante? Extension of nomination period necessary?
Lists A or B
List A99080YesNo
List B53292YesNo
Regional criteria
African states33050YesNo
Asian states32121YesNo
Eastern European states31262YesNo
Latin American and Caribbean States33010YesNo
Western European and other States33030YesNo
Gender criteria
Female67050YesNo
Male651121YesNo

Regarding the List A or B requirement, there are two seats reserved for List B judges. This requirement must be fulfilled under any circumstances.

Regarding the regional criteria, there are three seats reserved for regional groups: two for the Eastern European States and one for the Asian States.

Regarding the gender criteria, there is one seat reserved for male candidates.

The regional and gender criteria can be adjusted even before the election depending on the number of candidates. Paragraph 20(b) of the ASP resolution that governs the elections states that if there are less than double the number of candidates required for each region, the minimum voting requirement would have been a (rounded-up) half of the number of candidates; except when there is only one candidate which would result in no voting requirement.

The regional and gender criteria will be dropped either if they are not (jointly) possible any more, or if after four ballots not all seats are filled.

Ballots

All results are from the ASP homepage[3] if not otherwise noted.

Name Nationality List A or B Region Gender 8 December 2014 9 December 2014 10 December 2014 12 December 2014
1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot 4th ballot 5th ballot 6th ballot 7th ballot 8th ballot 9th ballot 10th ballot 11th ballot
Valid votes cast104107116116116117119113117118117
Two-thirds majority7072787878788076787978
Chung Chang-ho South KoreaList AAsiaMale73elected
Piotr Hofmański PolandList AEastern EuropeMale63667287elected
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut FranceList BWestern Europe and OthersMale615867757387elected
Bertram Schmitt GermanyList AWestern Europe and OthersMale676869717179elected
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua Democratic Republic of the CongoList BAfricaMale39425154666569717784elected
Péter Kovács HungaryList BEastern EuropeMale5259596856635457565546
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira Timor-LesteList AAsiaFemale3819202435343429333129
Krister Hans Thelin SwedenList AWestern Europe and OthersMale4445445243433537373628
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant BrazilList BLatin America and CaribbeanMale3435272834332224221914
Reine Alapini-Gansou BeninList BAfricaFemale1216202315136433withdrawn
Zlata Đurđević CroatiaList BEastern EuropeFemale35353438242610withdrawn
Mindia Ugrekhelidze GeorgiaList AEastern EuropeMale2320252315103withdrawn
Toma Birmontienė LithuaniaList BEastern EuropeFemale2220272512withdrawn
Pavel Gontšarov EstoniaList AEastern EuropeMale262327withdrawn
Abdelkader Ben Ali Bahloul TunisiaList AAfricaMale121517withdrawn
Harimahefa Ratiaraisoa MadagascarList BAfricaFemale11814withdrawn
Emmanuel Yaw Benneh GhanaList BAfricaMale53withdrawn
Name Nationality List A or B Region Gender 15 December 2014 16 December 2014
12th ballot 13th ballot 14th ballot 15th ballot 16th ballot 17th ballot 18th ballot 19th ballot 20th ballot 21st ballot 22nd ballot
Valid votes cast114117117111114115114110114115116
Two-thirds majority7678787476777674767778
Péter Kovács HungaryList BEastern EuropeMale4460605962656566707379
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira Timor-LesteList AAsiaFemale4657575252504944444237
Krister Hans Thelin SwedenList AWestern Europe and OthersMale24withdrawn
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant BrazilList BLatin America and CaribbeanMalewithdrawn

Minimum voting requirements (MVR)

Minimum voting requirement MVRs before ballots MVR fulfilled?
Asian judges1Yes, fulfilled after 1st ballot
Eastern European judges2Yes, discontinued after 4th ballot but fulfilled after 22nd ballot
Male judges1Yes, fulfilled after 1st ballot
List B judges2Yes, fulfilled after 10th ballot

References

  1. "Resolution ICC-ASP/3/Res.6" (PDF). International Criminal Court. 10 September 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  2. Election 2014 Archived 6 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Assembly of States Parties. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  3. 2014 - Election of six judges - Results Archived 26 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Assembly of States Parties. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
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