An Introduction To The International Criminal Court - Institute for ...

178 introduction to the international criminal court
a maximum of thirteen judges had to come from the criminal law profile,
and a minimum of five and a maximum of nine from the international law
profile. 11 In fact, in the first election, ten judges were drawn from the criminal
law list and eight from the international law list. Subsequent elections are
to be organised so as to maintain the same proportion of judges.
Although no specific percentages are set out, Article 36(8) commits the
States parties to ‘take into account’ the need to ensure representation of the
principal legal systems of the world, equitable geographic representation, ‘a
fair representation of female and male judges’, and legal expertise on specific
issues such as violence against women or children. The wording is a watereddown
version of draft provisions that spoke bluntly of ‘gender balance’. 12
The requirement of fair gender representation reflects concerns that the new
Court might resemble its close relation, the International Court of Justice, a
fifteen-member body to which only one woman has ever been elected in its
entire eighty-year history. The ad hoc tribunals, whose judges are elected by
the Security Council, have shown some modest improvement in this respect.
To their credit, both have elected women to the Presidency of the Tribunals.
But as recently as 2001, in elections for the International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia, only one of the fourteen judges was female.
The election procedure for judges was adopted by the Assembly of States
Parties at its first meeting, in September 2002. 13 Successful individual candidates
were required to obtain a two-thirds majority of States Parties present,
with an absolute majority of States Parties deemed to constitute a quorum.
In order to obtain an equitable geographic representation, it was agreed that
each State would be required to vote for at least three candidates from the
five voting groups recognised within the United Nations, namely, Africa,
Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and the ‘Western
Europe and other’ group (including, for example, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand). Each State was also required to vote for a minimum of six
candidates from each gender. Each State was given eighteen votes on the first
11 ‘Procedure for the Election of the Judges for the International Criminal Court’, ICC-ASP/1/Res.3,
para. 1.
12 Ibid., p. 21; Medard R. Rwelamira, ‘Composition and Administration of the Court’, in Roy
Lee, ed., The International Criminal Court: The Making of the Rome Statute: Issues, Negotiations,
Results, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999, pp. 153–73 at pp. 166–7; Cate Steains,
‘Gender Issues’, in Lee, ibid., pp. 357–90 at pp. 376–7.
13 ‘Procedure for the Nomination and Election of Judges, the Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutors
of the International Criminal Court’, ICC-ASP/1/Res.2; ‘Procedure for the Election of the Judges
for the International Criminal Court’, ICC-ASP/1/Res.3.