Early life and education
Okowa was born in Kericho on 1 January 1965 to Luo parents. She graduated at the top of her class with a Bachelor of Law (LLB) with First Class Honours from the University of Nairobi,Kenya in 1987. Okowa was the first woman to be awarded a first-class honours degree in the history of the Faculty of Law of the University of Nairobi. [1] She was called to the Kenyan Bar as an Advocate in 1990.
Okowa then studied at Wadham College,Oxford on a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship,obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1990. She completed her doctoral thesis (D.Phil.) at Oxford in 1994 under the supervision of Professor Sir Ian Brownlie,the Chichele Professor of International Law. Her monograph on State Responsibility for Transboundary Air Pollution [2] published by Oxford University Press remains the definitive work on the legal challenges that environmental harm presents for traditional methods of accountability in International Law. [3]
Legal career
Okowa has acted as counsel and consultant to governments and non-governmental organisations on questions of international law before domestic and international courts including before the International Court of Justice,involving cases concerning the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,maritime delimitations,the Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, [10] Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem, [11] [12] [13] Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations,Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, [19] [20] and Right to Strike under ILO Convention No. 87, [21] [22] [23] and before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law. [24] [25]
In 2016,she was appointed a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague by Kenya. [26]
The government of Kenya nominated Okowa for election to the UN International Law Commission (ILC) in May 2021. [27] [28] She was co-nominated by the United Kingdom and endorsed by the African Union. [29] Okowa received 162 votes in the United Nations General Assembly,becoming the first African woman elected to serve as an ILC member for a period of five years,effective January 1,2023. [30] [31] [32] [33] She was appointed the Chair of the ILC's Drafting Committee for its Seventy-fifth Session (2024). [34]
Okowa was elected an Associate (Associé) of the Institute of International Law ( Institut de Droit International ) at its 2025 Session in Rabat,Morocco. [35]
In 2025,Okowa was co-nominated by Colombia,Kenya,Namibia,the Netherlands,Romania,South Africa,Sweden and Vanuatu [36] for election as a Judge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to fill the vacancy on the Court due to the resignation of Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf. [37] On November 12,2025,after three rounds of voting,she received eight votes in the United Nations Security Council and 106 in the United Nations General Assembly and,therefore having received a majority of votes in each body,was elected as a Judge of the ICJ,with effect from that day,until February 5,2027,being the remainder of the term of Judge Yusuf. [38]
On Friday 30th January 2026,the Government of Kenya through the State Department of Foreign Affairs formally launched the candidature of Judge Phoebe Okowa for election to a full nine-year term at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a 9 year term (2027–2036). This appointment makes Okowa the first Kenyan to serve in the ICJ since 1945.,,
Speaking during the launch of her candidature,Judge Okowa said that "Today is above all,a day of gratitude for the UN member states for their confidence in me,as you know,there were four candidates for the vacancy,in electing me to an institution you care about." She also expressed her joy noting that,"It's also for me a day of immense personal pride that we're launching my campaign for the full 9-year term in our capital city."
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