International Criminal Court: Six New Judges Elected

At its current meeting in New York City, the ICC’s governing body, the Assembly of States Parties, was charged with electing six new judges for the Court.[1] On December 16th, the Assembly completed this task, and the new judges will take office on March 11, 2012.[2]

All six possess the basic Rome Statute qualifications for these important positions: high moral character; impartiality; integrity; the qualifications required by their States for appointment to their highest judicial offices; and excellent knowledge of the Court’s two “working languages” (English and French) and fluency in at least one of these languages.

In addition, they have established competency in either (a) “criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in similar capacity, in criminal proceedings” or (b) “relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court.”

All were on the list of qualified candidates for the judgeships that was produced by the Independent Panel on ICC Judicial Elections that evaluated the 19 candidates advanced by States Parties. The six new judges range in age from 49 to 66 and are reported to be in good health and thus presumptively able to serve the full nine-year term of office.

As shown below, the new judges bring a wealth of experience in domestic and international criminal law, prior judicial and advocate experience in criminal trials plus academic writing in the fields of criminal law, humanitarian law (or the law of war) and human rights. They also have distinguished educational records.

Anthony Thomas Aquinas CARMONA from Trinidad and Tobago. At 58 years of age, he has degrees from the University of the West Indies and the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School. He has considerable experience, training and demonstrated competence in criminal law and criminal procedure both at the national and international levels for over 25 years.

• He currently  is a judge of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago.
• He has served as Appeals Counsel (Office of the Prosecutor) at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

• Defensor-Santiago currently is a Senator, having been elected in 2010 for a third term; she also served as Senator from 1995 to 2001 and 2004 to 2010. She was the Chairperson of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, 2004-2010.
• She also stood for election as President in 1992 and received the second highest number of votes.
• She was Professional Lecturer on constitutional and international law, College of Law, University of Philippines, 1976-1988.
• She was a legal officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1979-1980.
• She served as Presiding Judge of a Regional Trial Court, 1983-1987.
• She was head of the Commission on Immigration and Deportation, 1988-1989.
• She was appointed Secretary (Minister) of Agrarian Reform in 1989.

She is well known in her home country for making colorful statements. For example, when she was asked if she had received death threats at the Commission on Immigration and Deportation, she said, “I eat death threats for breakfast. Death is only a state of thermodynamic equilibrium.”[3]

Chile EBOE-OSUJI of Nigeria. At age 49, he holds degrees from the University of Calabar (Nigeria), McGill University in Canada (LLB and LLM) and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands (PhD in international criminal law). Mr. Eboe-Osuji  has  competence in substantive and procedural criminal law based on 25 years of experience and familiarity with professional  advocacy in courtrooms:

• He has worked in senior legal advisory capacities to the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights and has rendered legal advisory services to the Government of Nigeria and foreign governments, on questions of international law.
• He has practiced criminal law in the courts of Nigeria and Canada.
• He has litigated cases before the ICTR as senior prosecution trial counsel, the Special Court for Sierra Leone as senior prosecution appeals counsel and the European Court of Human Rights. Prior to these engagements, he was prosecution counsel in several cases at the ICTR.

• He also has extensive experience, in a senior legal advisory capacity behind the scenes, assisting ICTR trial and appellate judges in the drafting of many judgments and decisions.
• His specific areas of competence include international criminal law (especially genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes); international humanitarian law; international human rights law; public international law; Nigerian and Canadian criminal law, and criminal law in the common law world.  He also has expertise relating to the crime of aggression, by virtue of his research and legal advisory assistance to the Delegation of Nigeria to the ICC Assembly of States Parties Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression.

• Judge ad litem, ICTR, 2010-2011
• Judge of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, 2009-10.
• Judge ad litem, ICTR, 2006-2008
• Judge of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, 2004-2005
• Judge of the High Court in Prague (Penal Section), 1989-2003
• Judge of the Court of Appeal in Prague (Penal Section), 1986-1989
• Judge of the District Court Prague 4, 1983-1986
• Judicial practitioner, Municipal Court, Prague, 1981-1983

Judge Fremr also has lectured on criminal law at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague and taught human rights courses to judges and trainee judges at the Judicial Academy of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.

Judge Fremr has attended many important international conferences (e.g. the ninth session of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute, official meetings within the Council of Europe,  Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Olga Venecia HERRERA CARBUCCIA of the Dominican Republic (DR). She holds degrees from the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo in the DR and is 55 years old. She has practical experience in the field of criminal law, human rights protection, children’s rights, and combating money laundering and financing terrorism.  She has extensive legal teaching experience in her home country. Herrera Carbuccia has extensive judicial experience in her home country:

• Judge President of the Criminal Chamber of a Court of Appeals , 2003-present
• Presiding Judge of the First Criminal Chamber of a Court of Appeals, 2001-2003
• First Deputy Judge President of the  Criminal Chamber of a  Court of Appeals, 1997-2003
• Substitute Second Judge President of the Criminal Chamber of a Court of Appeals, 1991-1997
• Judge President of the Eighth Penal Chamber of a Court of First Instance, 1986-1991
• Assistant Attorney to the National District Prosecutor, 1984-1986
• Fiscal of two DR Peace Courts, 1981-1984

• Judge of ICTY, 2009-present
• Judge of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, 2009
• Senior Judge of the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus, 2008.
• Circuit Judge, criminal and civil, 2004
• Defense counsel , ICTY and ICTR, 1998-2004
• Recorder in crime, civil and family jurisdictions, 1998
• Assistant Recorder in crime, civil and family jurisdictions, 1993
• Ad hoc Attorney-General for Anguilla, 1988-1989
• Resident Magistrate and  Chief Magistrate of Fiji and concurrently Senior Magistrate of Tuvalu, 1986-1988
• Practicing barrister in U.K., primarily criminal law and equally divided between prosecution and defense, 1977-1985 and 1989-2004.

We the peoples of the world should give thanks to these six qualified people for their willingness to undertake the important and challenging work of a Judge of the ICC.