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

States Parties/ASP Elections 2011
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The Statute provides that ‘the judges shall be
chosen from persons of high moral character,
impartiality and integrity who possess the
qualifications required in their respective States
for appointment to the highest judicial offices’. 383
Candidates must either have established
competence in criminal law and procedure (‘list
A’ candidates) or competence in international
law (‘list B’ candidates). Candidates who fulfil the
competence requirements of both list A and list
B can chose on which list to appear. 384 Candidates
are further required to have an excellent
knowledge of and be fluent in at least one of the
working languages of the Court. 385 There can be
only one national of a State Party serving at any
given time. 386 Article 36 further provides that, in
the nomination and election of judges, States
Parties shall take into account the need within the
membership of the Court for the representation
of the principal legal systems of the world;
equitable geographical representation; and a
fair representation of female and male judges.
The Statute also requires that States Parties
take into account ‘the need to include judges
with legal expertise on specific issues, including,
but not limited to, violence against women and
children’. 387
All of the six judges who are due to retire in 2012
are from List A; three are men and three are
women. With the retirement of these six judges,
the Court will be losing a considerable amount
of trial experience, both because these are List
A judges with criminal trial law experience, but
also, and more importantly, because they have the
amassed considerable experience from having
served on the ICC’s only trial proceedings to date.
With the exception of Judge Nsereko, who is in
the Appeals Chamber, all of the departing judges
are serving in Trial Chambers hearing ongoing
383 Article 36(3).
384 Article 36(5) .
385 Article 36(3)(c) of the Rome Statute. Although the ICC has six
official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian
and Spanish), the Court has two working languages: English
and French.
386 Article 36(7) .
387 Article 368(b).
trials. Judges Fulford and Odio-Benito are in Trial
Chamber I, hearing the Lubanga case; Judges
Cotte and Diarra are in Trial Chamber II, hearing
the Katanga & Ngudjolo case; and Judge Steiner
is in Trial Chamber III, hearing the Bemba case.
Of these, Judges Fulford, Steiner and Cotte are
presiding judges. As noted previously, the term
of Judge Blattmann, also part of Trial Chamber
I, has already been extended to allow him to
continue hearing the Lubanga case. Should any
of these trials be ongoing at the time the judges
are due to retire in March 2012, their terms may
also be extended pursuant to Article 36(10) 388
to allow them to conclude the trial proceedings.
Similarly, should the Appeals Chamber be seized
of an interlocutory appeal at the time of Judge
Nsereko’s retirement, his term may also be
extended. The status of each of these trials is
discussed in the Trial Proceedings section of this
<strong>Report</strong>.
The possible extension of judges’ mandates will
also have significant budgetary implications for
the Court. Although the Court does not anticipate
calling all new judges to fulltime service, the CBF
noted that it had been informed that there is no
assurance that this scenario would be maintained
and that it is likely that at least some of these
six judges might be called to full-time service
in 2012. 389 In addition to the required eighteen
judges on the bench, should a number of judges’
mandates be extended, the Court may have up to
an additional seven judges in service. 390
The nomination period for the December 2011
judicial election ran from 13 June through 2
September 2011, and was extended with two
weeks until 16 September 2011. 391 At the end of
the nomination period, 19 candidates had been
388 Article 36(10) provides that ‘a judge assigned to a Trial
or Appeals Chamber in accordance with article 39 shall
continue in office to complete any trial or appeal the hearing
of which has already commenced before that Chamber’.
389 ICC-ASP/10/15, Advance version, para 104.
390 One judge whose term was extended in 2009 to hear the
end of the Lubanga case, in addition to up to six judges
whose terms end in March 2012.
391 ICC-ASP/10/S/57.