UNGA, UNSC elect 5 judges to International Court of Justice
Nov 13, 2020
New York [US], November 13 (ANI/Sputnik): The United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council on Thursday elected five judges to serve at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for nine-year terms, UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir announced after the completion of the vote count on Thursday.
"The following five candidates have obtained an absolute majority in both bodies [UN General Assembly, Security Council]: It was Yuji Iwasawa (Japan), Georg Nolte (Germany), Julia Sebutinde (Uganda), Peter Tomka (Slovakia) and Xue Hanqin (China). They are therefore duly elected members of the International Court of Justice to serve for a nine-year term commencing February 6, 2021," Bozkir said.
The ICJ, tasked with settling legal disputes between UN member states, is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms by a vote held independently at the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.
Election at the ICJ, one of the UN's six principal organs, is held every three years for five seats with no bar on consecutive terms.
During this year's election, eight candidates, four of which are current ICJ members, were contesting the five positions.
German jurist Nolte will serve his first term at the ICJ. The other candidates who run for the election were Taoheed Olufemi Elias from Nigeria, Emmanuel Ugirashebuja from Rwanda and Maja Sersic from Croatia. (ANI/Sputnik)
