UNGA, UNSC elect 5 Judges to International Court of Justice

On Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly & the Security Council elected 5 Judges to serve at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for 9-year terms, UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir announced after the completion of the vote count on Thursday.

Bozkir said that "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) & 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".

The ICJ, tasked with settling legal disputes between UN member states, is composed of fifteen Judges elected to 9-year terms by a vote held independently at the UN Security Council & the UN General Assembly.

Election at the ICJ, one of the UN's 6 principal organs, is held every three years for 5 seats with no bar on consecutive terms.

During this year's election, 8 candidates, 4 of which are current ICJ members, were contesting the 5 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 & Maja Sersic from Croatia.

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