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PRESS RELEASE
- For Immediate Release - NOMINATIONS CLOSED FOR JUDGES TO THE ICC 45 CANDIDATES PUT FORWARD; WOMEN MAKE UP LESS (NEW YORK, 2 December 2002) – The international community moved another step closer to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) when the nomination period for judges came to a close on Monday. In the final count, however, women were not to have as large a presence in the pool of candidates as civil society organizations had hoped. Of the 45 candidates logged in at the close of the nomination period, only ten are women. “We applaud those states which made an effort to seek out and nominate highly qualified women,” said Vahida Nainar, board member from India of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice, an international justice advocacy network that has worked to ensure the Court will be set up to effectively prosecute crimes of sexual and gender violence. “We are disappointed though that despite the Rome Statute’s mandates of fair representation of women and men on the Court, women constitute less than a fourth of the candidates put forward.” The President of the ICC Assembly of States Parties, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, formally announced by letter to all 85 member countries that the criteria for the nomination process had been met and that as of the midnight deadline on Saturday, the nomination period was closed. Still, despite the disparity in the pool of candidates, advocates say there is an opportunity to get a gender balance in the election of the 18 judges given the qualifications and expertise of the 10 female candidates. In September, delegates at the first meeting of the Assembly of States Parties adopted rules for the election process which ensure that the ICC elections will be the first in an international judicial institution subject to minimum voting requirements for women and men. The rules require that delegates must vote for at least six women and at least six men. While the voting requirements do not ensure an outcome, the fact that there is a field of such qualified women helps the odds, experts say. “If the Assembly of States Parties voted on the basis of qualifications, there would be a historic opportunity to get a 50/50 balance on the Court,” said Rhonda Copelon, law professor at the City University of New York School of Law and Director of the International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic. “The States Parties will have to abandon their traditional practices in these elections and exceed the minimum voting requirement.” The regionally-diverse field of women candidates represents a wealth of experience and legal expertise. They include: Maureen Harding Clark (Ireland), Fatoumata Dembele Diarra (Mali), Hajnalka Karpati (Hungary), Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana), Elizabeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica), Barbara Ott (Switzerland), Navanethem Pillay (South Africa), Sylvia H. Steiner (Brazil), Anita Usacka (Latvia) and Eleanora Zielinska (Poland). Arline Pacht, founding President and former Executive Director of the International Association of Women Judges, an international alliance of more than 4,000 women judges in 75 countries, said the gender gap does a disservice to the cause of justice. “There are superbly qualified women all over the world who could make enormously significant contributions to the cause of justice through their work on this Court,” Pacht said. “This is not only a disappointment for those women justices, in particular, but also for all those who will serve on or appear before the Court who would benefit greatly from their experience, perspectives and insights.” The International Criminal Court will be the world’s first permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Women’s rights advocates observe that the Rome Statute stands as one of the most significant treaties in history for the way it deals so inclusively with crimes of sexual and gender violence. The statute codifies rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Statute also mandates in Article 36(8) that states take into account the need for a “fair representation of male and female judges” on the Court and the need for legal expertise in violence against women. Women's rights advocates view these advances as critical in light of the drastic disparities in the number of men and women in other international judicial institutions. As an example, they point to the International Court of Justice where only 1 woman has ever served on 15-member panel in its 85 years of existence. Currently, only one woman is serving on the 16-member panel of judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and three are on the 16-member panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. “This was the first test of commitment to the Rome Statute’s provisions relating to women on the court,” said Pam Spees, Program Director of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice. “This reminds us that despite the advances on paper, deeply ingrained barriers still serve to deny women their rightful place on this Court. But the elections are the ultimate test and there is still an opportunity to set the record right.” -30- For more information contact: Pernilla Olsson, Media Contact Pam Spees Vahida Nainar Rhonda Copelon Arline Pacht |