2006 International Criminal Court judges election

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An ordinary election for six

States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in New York on 26 January 2006.[1]

Background

The judges elected at this election were to take office on 11 March 2006. All six judges elected for a three-year term in 2003 were eligible for re-election, all of them ran.

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 2006 election lasted from 18 July to 20 November 2005. The following persons were nominated:[3]

Name Nationality List A or B Region Gender
Károly Bard  Hungary List B Eastern European States Male
Haridiata Dakoure  Burkina Faso List A African States Female
Hans-Peter Kaul  Germany List B Western European and Other States Male
Erkki Kourula  Finland List B Western European and Other States Male
Akua Kuenyehia  Ghana List B African States Female
Tuiloma Neroni Slade  Samoa List A Asian States Male
Sang-hyun Song
  South Korea List A Asian States Male
Cheikh Tidiane Thiam  Senegal List B African States Male
Ekaterina Trendafilova  Bulgaria List A Eastern European States Female
Anita Ušacka  Latvia List B Eastern European States Female

The candidature of Effie Owuor of Kenya was withdrawn.[4]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 were minimum voting requirements for one African, one Asian and two Eastern European judges.

Regarding the gender criteria, there was a minimum voting requirement for one female judge.

The regional and gender criteria could have been 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 4 1 Yes
List B 1 6 1 Yes
Regional criteria
African states 1 3 1 Yes
Asian states 1 2 1 Yes
Eastern European states 2 3 2 Yes
Latin American and Caribbean States 0 0 0 Yes
Western European and other States 0 2 0 Yes
Gender criteria
Female 1 4 1 Yes
Male 0 6 0 Yes

Ballots

The only ballot took place on 26 January 2006.

Name Nationality List A or B Region Gender Ballot
Number of States Parties voting 100
Two-thirds majority 67
Ekaterina Trendafilova  Bulgaria List A Eastern European States Female 82
Anita Ušacka  Latvia List B Eastern European States Female 77
Erkki Kourula  Finland List B Western European and Other States Male 73
Akua Kuenyehia  Ghana List B African States Female 72
Sang-hyun Song
  South Korea List A Asian States Male 70
Hans-Peter Kaul  Germany List B Western European and Other States Male 67
Tuiloma Neroni Slade  Samoa List A Asian States Male 50
Károly Bard  Hungary List B Eastern European States Male 36
Cheikh Tidiane Thiam  Senegal List B African States Male 29
Haridiata Dakoure  Burkina Faso List A African States Female 16

With the exception of Judge Slade (who was replaced by Ekaterina Trendafilova) all re-eligible judges were in fact re-elected.

References

  1. ^ "Second election of the judges of the International Criminal Court" (PDF). International Criminal Court. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  2. ^ "Resolution ICC-ASP/3/Res.6" (PDF). International Criminal Court. 10 September 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  3. ^ "Alphabetical listing". International Criminal Court. 3 October 2007. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  4. ^ Alphabetical listing of candidates. ICC. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  5. ^ Note verbale governing the election Archived 15 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. ICC. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
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