January 2009 International Criminal Court judges election

Last updated October 11, 2025

An ordinary election for six judges of the International Criminal Court was held during the resumption of the 7th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in New York on 19 and 20 January 2009.^[1]

Background

The judges elected at this election were to take office on 11 March 2009, and to remain in office until 10 March 2018.^{[ citation needed ]}

The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:

(i) The representation of the principal legal systems of the world;
(ii) Equitable geographical representation; and
(iii) A fair representation of female and male judges."

Furthermore, article 36(3)(b) and 36(5) provide for two lists:

List A contains those judges that "[h]ave established competence in criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in other similar capacity, in criminal proceedings";
List B contains those who "[h]ave established competence in 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".

Each candidate must belong to exactly one list.

Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.^[2]

Nomination process

Following these rules, the nomination period of judges for the 2009 election lasted from 21 July to 13 October 2008 and was extended thrice until 24 November 2008 due to the lack of candidates from some groups for which minimum voting requirements were in place. The following persons were nominated:^[3]

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender
Victoire Désirée Adétoro Agbanrin-Elisha	Benin	List A	African States	Female
Joyce Aluoch	Kenya	List A	African States	Female
Phani Dascalopoulou-Livada	Greece	List B	Western European and Other States	Female
Christopher John Robert Dugard	South Africa	List B	African States	Male
Chile Eboe-Osuji	Nigeria	List A	African States	Male
María del Carmen González Cabal	Ecuador	List B	Latin American and Caribbean States	Female
Gberdao Gustave Kam	Burkina Faso	List A	African States	Male
Sanji Mmasenono Monageng	Botswana	List B	African States	Female
Aminatta Lois Runeni N'Gum	Gambia	List B	African States	Female
Vonimbolana Rasoazanany	Madagascar	List A	African States	Female
Fumiko Saiga	Japan	List B	Asian States	Female
Mohamed Shahabuddeen	Guyana	List B	Latin American and Caribbean States	Male
Angélique Sita-Akele Muila	Democratic Republic of the Congo	List B	African States	Female
El Hadji Malick Sow	Senegal	List A	African States	Male
Cuno Tarfusser	Italy	List A	Western European and Other States	Male
Wilhelmina Thomassen	Netherlands	List A	Western European and Other States	Female
Rosolu John Bankole Thompson	Sierra Leone	List A	African States	Male
Christine van den Wyngaert	Belgium	List A	Western European and Other States	Female
Dragomir Vokuje	Bosnia and Herzegovina	List A	Eastern European States	Male

The candidatures of Fernando Enrique Arboleda Ripoll of Colombia and of Lombe Chibesakunda of Zambia were withdrawn.

The candidature of Onesimus Mutungi of Kenya was replaced by the candidature of Joyce Aluoch.

Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria was originally listed for list B.^[4]

Minimum voting requirements

Minimum voting requirements governed part of the election. This was to ensure that article 36(8)(a) cited above is fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements existed; they were to be adjusted once the election was underway.

Regarding the List A or B requirement, there was a minimum voting requirement (not to be waived at any time) of one judge from List A and one judge from List B.^[5]

Regarding the regional criteria, there was a voting requirement for one judge from the Asian States and one judge from the Latin American and Caribbean States.

Regarding the gender criteria, there was no minimum voting requirement.

The regional and gender criteria could have been (and were) adjusted even before the election depending on the number of candidates. Paragraph 20(b) of the ASP resolution that governed the elections states that if there are less than double the number of candidates required for each region, the minimum voting requirement shall be a (rounded-up) half of the number of candidates; except when there is only one candidate which results in no voting requirement. Furthermore, if the number of candidates of one gender is less than ten, then the minimum voting requirement shall not exceed a certain number depending on the number of candidates.

The regional and gender criteria could have been dropped either if they were not (jointly) possible any more, or if after four ballots not all seats were filled.

The voting requirements were as follows:

Criterion	Voting requirement ex ante	Candidates as of now	Adjusted voting requirement	Adjusted requirement equals ex ante?
Lists A or B
List A	1	11	1	Yes
List B	1	8	1	Yes
Regional criteria
African states	0	11	0	Yes
Asian states	1	1	0	No
Eastern European states	0	1	0	Yes
Latin American and Caribbean States	1	2	1	Yes
Western European and other States	0	4	0	Yes
Gender criteria
Female	0	11	0	Yes
Male	0	8	0	Yes

Ballots

The first two ballots took place on 19 January 2009. All other ballots took place on 20 January 2009.^{[ citation needed ]}

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender	1st round	2nd round	3rd round	4th round	5th round	6th round	7th round	8th round	9th round
Number of States Parties voting					108	108	108	107	108	105	108	108	100
Two-thirds majority					72	72	72	72	72	72	72	72	67
Mohamed Shahabuddeen	Guyana	List B	Latin American and Caribbean States	Male	79	elected
Fumiko Saiga	Japan	List B	Asian States	Female	72	elected
Cuno Tarfusser	Italy	List A	Western European and Other States	Male	69	68	74	elected
Sanji Mmasenono Monageng	Botswana	List B	African States	Female	41	50	64	75	elected
Christine van den Wyngaert	Belgium	List A	Western European and Other States	Female	58	58	61	67	73	elected
Joyce Aluoch	Kenya	List A	African States	Female	30	32	39	36	38	48	55	62	100
Wilhelmina Thomassen	Netherlands	List A	Western European and Other States	Female	59	62	62	60	65	56	53	46	withdrawn
Phani Dascalopoulou-Livada	Greece	List B	Western European and Other States	Female	48	43	31	28	14	withdrawn
Christopher John Robert Dugard	South Africa	List B	African States	Male	30	27	25	20	14	withdrawn
María del Carmen González Cabal	Ecuador	List B	Latin American and Caribbean States	Female	31	18	18	14	withdrawn
Chile Eboe-Osuji	Nigeria	List A	African States	Male	24	16	12	withdrawn
Vonimbolana Rasoazanany	Madagascar	List A	African States	Female	10	6	12	withdrawn
Gberdao Gustave Kam	Burkina Faso	List A	African States	Male	14	9	withdrawn
Angélique Sita-Akele Muila	Democratic Republic of the Congo	List B	African States	Female	11	4	withdrawn
El Hadji Malick Sow	Senegal	List A	African States	Male	10	4	withdrawn
Dragomir Vokuje	Bosnia and Herzegovina	List A	Eastern European States	Male	9	4	withdrawn
Aminatta Lois Runeni N'Gum	Gambia	List B	African States	Female	5	3	withdrawn
Rosolu John Bankole Thompson	Sierra Leone	List A	African States	Male	9	2	withdrawn
Victoire Désirée Adétoro Agbanrin-Elisha	Benin	List A	African States	Female	4	withdrawn

References

↑ "Results of the third election of the judges of the International Criminal Court". International Criminal Court. 20 January 2009. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
↑ "Resolution ICC-ASP/3/Res.6" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 10 September 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
↑ "Alphabetical listing". International Criminal Court. 17 January 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2011.^{[ dead link ]}
↑ Alphabetical listing ^{[ dead link ]}. ICC. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
↑ Note verbale governing the election. ICC. Retrieved 11 December 2011.

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[1] "Results of the third election of the judges of the International Criminal Court". International Criminal Court. 20 January 2009. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2011.

[2] "Resolution ICC-ASP/3/Res.6" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 10 September 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 22 July 2024.

[3] "Alphabetical listing". International Criminal Court. 17 January 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2011.^{[ dead link ]}

[4] Alphabetical listing ^{[ dead link ]}. ICC. Retrieved 12 December 2011.

[5] Note verbale governing the election. ICC. Retrieved 11 December 2011.

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