Profiles of Women Candidates to the ICC

Maureen Harding Clark (Ireland) is currently serving as an ad litem judge in Trial Chamber I at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) where she has been since September 2001. She has experience with both adversarial and civil law systems and has served as a practicing lawyer for 26 years in both a prosecutorial capacity as well as criminal defense. She has served as an advisor to the government on issues relating to: victims' rights in sexual offense cases; victims of sexual abuse in state prisons; and interviewing child victims of sexual abuse. She has also lectured and spoken out about the needs of victims and family members in criminal proceedings and the need for development of a criminal legal system based on the needs and rights of victims.

Fatoumata Dembele Diarra (Mali) is also currently serving as an ad litem judge at the ICTY in Tribunal I. Prior to her election to the ICTY, she served as National Director of the Justice Administration and prior to that as President of the Criminal Chamber of the Bamako Appeals Court. From 1993-94, she served as the Official Representative of the Office of the Commissioner for the Promotion of Women. Earlier in her career she served as a trial attorney for the Office of the Prosecutor in Bamako and before that as an Investigative Judge responsible for investigating rape and other forms of violence against women and girls. In 1995, she served as President of the National Preparatory Committee for the Fourth World Conference on Women. In 1994 she was president of the Support Group for Legal Reform, coordinated to criminalize genital mutilations. She is also a founding president of Legal Clinic and legal aid offices to provide legal assistance to women and children. She has written on issues related to women in armed conflict; violence against women; excision and Malian positive law; and obstacles to women's rights in Mali. In an interview with NGO's she emphasized the role of victims in the process.

Hajnalka Karpati (Hungary) currently serves as a judge in the Criminal Division of the Prizren District Court as part of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. Prior to this appointment, she served as a criminal judge in Budapest, Hungary. In Budapest District Criminal Court, she presided over cases involving offenses against the person, which included assault and battery, sexual offenses and theft and related offenses.

Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana) is currently Dean of the Faculty of Law and Acting Director at the University of Ghana and was recently elected to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. She has been a visiting scholar at schools in the Netherlands, the United States and in Nigeria. She is a member of Women in Law and Development in Africa and the International Federation of Lawyers. She has written numerous articles and edited texts relating to women's rights, divorce law and property rights of women in Ghana, family law, labor law, and economic rights of women. She has also held consultancies on Women's Health and Violence, HIV/AIDS policies for Ghana and Micro-credit enterprises for women.

Elizabeth Odio Benito (Panama/Costa Rica) served as a judge at the ICTY from 1993-1998. While serving at the tribunal, she was a member of the trial chamber which presided over the Celebici case which set an important precedent in international legal jurisprudence on crimes of sexual and gender violence. She has served as a Special Rapporteur on Discrimination and Intolerance based on Religion or Creed, a member of the National Group of Costa Rica to the Permanent Court of Arbitration and President of the Working Group on the Optional Protocol for the International Convention Against Torture. She taught for many years at the University of Costa Rica Law School and has taught as a visiting scholar at universities in Spain, the Netherlands. She has authored numerous articles and chapters on international human rights and women's human rights and violence against women.

Barbara Ott (Switzerland) is a Major in the Swiss Military and serves as a District Attorney for the Second Division Military Court. As an officer on the staff of Attorney General of the Swiss Army, she is responsible for dealing with war crimes. She has also led investigations  relating to the genocide in Rwanda for cases in Rwanda, Belgium, France and Switzerland. She participated as one of four judges in the trial of Fulgence Niyonteze, which was held in Lausanne, Switzerland and was the first trial outside of Africa relating to acts committed during the Rwandan genocide. In 1995, Ms. Ott served on an investigatory mission for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to help develop investigation strategies, witness protection measures and to conduct witness interviews.

Navanethem Pillay (South Africa) is currently President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) where she has served as a judge since 1995. She was a member of the trial chamber that delivered the historic judgment in the case of Akayesu. Akayesu represented the first conviction for genocide and took into account the ways in which sexual violence can constitute acts of genocide. Prior to her tenure as a judge at the ICTR, she served as an acting judge on the High Court of South Africa and presided over both civil and criminal cases. Prior to her career in the judiciary, she was the first woman to start a law practice in Natal Province, South Africa which she began in 1967. Her legal advocacy work included representation of anti-apartheid activists and defense of the rights of political prisoners.

Sylvia H. de Figueiredo Steiner (Brazil) is currently a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals of Sao Paolo where she has served for seven years. Prior to her appointment as a judge, she worked as a prosecutor in the Federal Court for 13 years. She has also served as a delegate to the ICC negotiations; and is an active member of the Judges for Democracy Restoration and the Justice and Peace Commission. Ms. Steiner has spent more than 30 years working with numerous NGO's, and has written extensively on issues relating to human rights and domestic implementation, children in the justice process and on the International Criminal Court. Her courtroom experience has included dealing with criminal cases involving violence against women and children.

Anita Usacka (Latvia) has been a judge on the Constitutional Court of Latvia since 1996. She is also currently a professor at the Department of State Law and an associate professor at the Department for Fundamental Legal Studies at the University of Latvia, where she served as head of the Department for Fundamental Legal Studies from 1989-1996. From 1994-96 she was Executive Director of the Latvian branch UNICEF. She has lectured and written extensively on human rights and public international law, child protection, rights of minorities and women's rights as well as legal issues relating to EU accession. She is a member of the International Women Judges Association and numerous other professional associations.

Eleonora Zielinska (Poland) is currently director of the Institute of Penal Law at Warsaw University where she has taught since 1970. The courses she has taught include criminal law, violence against women, legal protection of women's rights, international cooperation and jurisdiction in criminal matters. She has also served as an expert before different bodies, including Parliament, the Council of Europe and the government on criminal law, medical law, gender equality and violence against women. She co-founded and directed a legal aid clinic at Warsaw University for disadvantaged communities. She has edited several books and authored numerous articles and reports on international criminal law, gender, reproductive rights, women's human rights and HIV/AIDS.