Gender Report Card on the International Criminal ... - YWCA Canada

States Parties/ASP Elections 2011
Election of the next
Chief Prosecutor
The current Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis
Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, took office on
16 June 2003. Under Article 42(4) of the Rome
Statue, the Chief Prosecutor’s term of office
is nine years, and she or he is not eligible for
re-election. The next Prosecutor is expected to
assume her or his duties in mid-2012 and serve
a nine year term, expiring in 2021, unless at
the time of election a shorter term is agreed
upon. 343
Article 42(3) of the Rome Statute provides
that the Prosecutor ‘shall be [a person] of
high moral character, be highly competent
in and have extensive practical experience
in the prosecution or trial of criminal cases.
[She/he] shall have an excellent knowledge of
and be fluent in at least one of the working
languages of the Court.’ Every nomination of a
suitable candidate must be accompanied by a
statement setting out how the candidate fulfils
the requirements as set out in Article 42(3). 344
According to the ASP Resolutions governing
the process, nominations for the position
should preferably enjoy support of multiple
States Parties. 345 The period for nominations
lasts 12 weeks and opens 26 weeks prior to the
elections. 346 For these elections, the nomination
period opened on 13 June 2011. Because of the
creation of a Search Committee for the position
of Chief Prosecutor, as described below, no
formal nominations by States have been made
and the nomination period has been extended
343 Article 42(4).
344 ICC-ASP/1/Res.2, para 26.
345 ICC-ASP/1/Res.2, para 25.
346 ICC-ASP/1/Res.2, para 24; ICC-ASP/3/Res.6, para 3.
until 9 December 2011, 347 to facilitate the
implementation of paragraph 33 of Resolution
ICC-ASP/3/Res.6 (Consolidated version), which
provides that ‘every effort shall be made to
elect the Prosecutor by consensus’. 348 Article
42 does not require the Prosecutor to have the
nationality of a State Party. ASP Resolution ICC-
ASP/1/Res.2 calls for the ASP to make ‘every effort
[…] to elect the Prosecutor by consensus’, 349 and if
consensus cannot be reached, for the Prosecutor
to be elected by secret ballot by absolute
majority of the members of the ASP. 350
Establishment of the
Search Committee
At its ninth session in 2010, the Bureau of the
ASP established a ‘Search Committee for the
Position of the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court’, a new body mandated to
‘facilitate the nomination and election, by
consensus, of the next Prosecutor’. 351 The Search
Committee was composed of five members, one
from each regional group.
347 The nomination period has been extended seven times
with two weeks: see Note Verbale of 5 September,
extending the nomination period until 16 September;
Note Verbale of 21 September, extending until 30
September; Note Verbale of 3 October, extending until 14
October; Note Verbale of 19 October, extending until 28
October; Note Verbale of 2 November, extending until 11
November; Note Verbale of 14 November 2011, extending
until 25 November 2011; and Note Verbale of 28 November
2011, extending until 9 December 2011.
348 ICC-ASP/3/Res.6, Consolidated version, para 33.
349 ICC-ASP/1/Res.2, para 29.
350 ICC-ASP/1/Res.2 para 30.
351 The Terms of Reference for the Search Committee were
adopted by the Bureau of the Search Committee on 6
December 2010 (ICC-ASP/9/INF.2).
102