2014 International Criminal Court judges election
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
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 | Benin | List B | Africa | Female |
Abdelkader Ben Ali Bahloul | Tunisia | List A | Africa | Male |
Emmanuel Yaw Benneh | Ghana | List B | Africa | Male |
Toma Birmontienė | Lithuania | List B | Eastern Europe | Female |
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant | Brazil | List B | Latin America and Caribbean | Male |
Chung Chang-ho | South Korea | List A | Asia | Male |
Zlata Đurđević | Croatia | List B | Eastern Europe | Female |
Pavel Gontšarov | Estonia | List A | Eastern Europe | Male |
Piotr Hofmański | Poland | List A | Eastern Europe | Male |
Péter Kovács | Hungary | List B | Eastern Europe | Male |
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua | Democratic Republic of the Congo | List B | Africa | Male |
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira | Timor-Leste | List A | Asia | Female |
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut | France | List B | Western Europe and Others | Male |
Harimahefa Ratiaraisoa | Madagascar | List B | Africa | Female |
Bertram Schmitt | Germany | List A | Western Europe and Others | Male |
Krister Hans Thelin | Sweden | List A | Western Europe and Others | Male |
Mindia Ugrekhelidze | Georgia | List A | Eastern Europe | Male |
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 A | 9 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 0 | Yes | No |
List B | 5 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 2 | Yes | No |
Regional criteria | |||||||
African states | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | Yes | No |
Asian states | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Yes | No |
Eastern European states | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 2 | Yes | No |
Latin American and Caribbean States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Yes | No |
Western European and other States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | Yes | No |
Gender criteria | |||||||
Female | 6 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | Yes | No |
Male | 6 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 1 | Yes | No |
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 cast | 104 | 107 | 116 | 116 | 116 | 117 | 119 | 113 | 117 | 118 | 117 | ||||
Two-thirds majority | 70 | 72 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 80 | 76 | 78 | 79 | 78 | ||||
Chung Chang-ho | South Korea | List A | Asia | Male | 73 | elected | |||||||||
Piotr Hofmański | Poland | List A | Eastern Europe | Male | 63 | 66 | 72 | 87 | elected | ||||||
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut | France | List B | Western Europe and Others | Male | 61 | 58 | 67 | 75 | 73 | 87 | elected | ||||
Bertram Schmitt | Germany | List A | Western Europe and Others | Male | 67 | 68 | 69 | 71 | 71 | 79 | elected | ||||
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua | Democratic Republic of the Congo | List B | Africa | Male | 39 | 42 | 51 | 54 | 66 | 65 | 69 | 71 | 77 | 84 | elected |
Péter Kovács | Hungary | List B | Eastern Europe | Male | 52 | 59 | 59 | 68 | 56 | 63 | 54 | 57 | 56 | 55 | 46 |
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira | Timor-Leste | List A | Asia | Female | 38 | 19 | 20 | 24 | 35 | 34 | 34 | 29 | 33 | 31 | 29 |
Krister Hans Thelin | Sweden | List A | Western Europe and Others | Male | 44 | 45 | 44 | 52 | 43 | 43 | 35 | 37 | 37 | 36 | 28 |
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant | Brazil | List B | Latin America and Caribbean | Male | 34 | 35 | 27 | 28 | 34 | 33 | 22 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 14 |
Reine Alapini-Gansou | Benin | List B | Africa | Female | 12 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 15 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | withdrawn |
Zlata Đurđević | Croatia | List B | Eastern Europe | Female | 35 | 35 | 34 | 38 | 24 | 26 | 10 | withdrawn | |||
Mindia Ugrekhelidze | Georgia | List A | Eastern Europe | Male | 23 | 20 | 25 | 23 | 15 | 10 | 3 | withdrawn | |||
Toma Birmontienė | Lithuania | List B | Eastern Europe | Female | 22 | 20 | 27 | 25 | 12 | withdrawn | |||||
Pavel Gontšarov | Estonia | List A | Eastern Europe | Male | 26 | 23 | 27 | withdrawn | |||||||
Abdelkader Ben Ali Bahloul | Tunisia | List A | Africa | Male | 12 | 15 | 17 | withdrawn | |||||||
Harimahefa Ratiaraisoa | Madagascar | List B | Africa | Female | 11 | 8 | 14 | withdrawn | |||||||
Emmanuel Yaw Benneh | Ghana | List B | Africa | Male | 5 | 3 | withdrawn |
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 cast | 114 | 117 | 117 | 111 | 114 | 115 | 114 | 110 | 114 | 115 | 116 | ||||
Two-thirds majority | 76 | 78 | 78 | 74 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 74 | 76 | 77 | 78 | ||||
Péter Kovács | Hungary | List B | Eastern Europe | Male | 44 | 60 | 60 | 59 | 62 | 65 | 65 | 66 | 70 | 73 | 79 |
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira | Timor-Leste | List A | Asia | Female | 46 | 57 | 57 | 52 | 52 | 50 | 49 | 44 | 44 | 42 | 37 |
Krister Hans Thelin | Sweden | List A | Western Europe and Others | Male | 24 | withdrawn | |||||||||
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant | Brazil | List B | Latin America and Caribbean | Male | withdrawn | ||||||||||
Minimum voting requirements (MVR)
Minimum voting requirement | MVRs before ballots | MVR fulfilled? |
Asian judges | 1 | Yes, fulfilled after 1st ballot |
Eastern European judges | 2 | Yes, discontinued after 4th ballot but fulfilled after 22nd ballot |
Male judges | 1 | Yes, fulfilled after 1st ballot |
List B judges | 2 | Yes, fulfilled after 10th ballot |
References
- "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.
- Election 2014 Archived 6 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Assembly of States Parties. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
- 2014 - Election of six judges - Results Archived 26 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Assembly of States Parties. Retrieved 9 December 2014.