New judges for ICJ elected

The 191 electors of the UN general assembly and Security Council have elected five news judges for a full-time resident job at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the judicial organ of the UN at The Hague

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Contesters of the job who included legal luminary from different countries were beaten hands down by Somalia’s Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, during the election
Abdulqawi got 116 votes out of a total 191 electors from the UN General Assembly and Security Council, crushing Miriam Defensor-Santiago of Philippines and Maurice Kamto of Cameroon during the fourth round of voting to emerge judge, a UN press release said.
The Somalian judge was elected alongside Ronny Abraham of France, Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh of Jordan, Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade of Brazil and Christopher John Greenwood of Britain. Ronny and Shawkat who had already been serving as judges at the ICJ were re-elected, respectively earning 152 and 151 votes on 191. Brazil’s Trindade scored 163 votes while Britain’s Greenwood got 157 votes.
The five elected judges will commence work on 6 February 2009 and will for the next nine years handle dispute cases tabled before the International Court of Justice for arbitration by conflicting member countries of the UN. They will work hand in hand with 10 other judges whose mandates are still running.

The 15 ICJ judges include, Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco), Thomas Buergenthal (USA), Kenneth Keith (New Zealand), Abdul Koroma (Sierra Leone), Hishashi Owada (Japan), Bernardo Sepulveda-Amor (Mexico), Shi Jiuyong (China), Bruno Simma (Germany), Leonid Skotnikov (Russia), Peter Tomka (Slovakia), Ronny Abraham (France), Antonio Cancado Trinidad (Brazil), Christopher Greenwood (Britain) Awn Shawkat Al-khasawneh (Jordan) and Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (Somalia).