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WOMEN ON THE COURT
NOW!

CAMPAIGN COMMUNIQUE NO. 3
 

NOMINATION PROCESS CLOSES; 10 WOMEN NOMINATED

ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD 3-7 FEBRUARY 2003

The nomination period for the election of judges to the International Criminal Court officially closed on Saturday, November 30, 2002. In the final count, 10 women were nominated out of 45 candidates in total. (On Friday, 13 December 2002, the government of Paraguay withdrew the nomination of its candidate. Now, there are 44 official candidates.) While women make up less than a fourth of the entire pool of candidates, there is still an opportunity to get a gender balance on the 18-member Court.

The women candidates include:

Maureen Harding Clark (Ireland)
Fatoumata Dembele Dairra (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)
Eleanora Zielinska (Poland)
 

(Please see below for a listing of all candidates)

The ICC elections will be subject to minimum voting requirements for gender, region and field of expertise. This is the first time that elections to an international judicial institution are subject to such requirements. (The relevant criteria from the Rome Statute and additional rules governing the nomination and election process are posted on our website.)

As a result of the number of nominations of female candidates, delegates voting in February must apply the maximum voting requirement for gender – meaning they must vote for at least six women and at least six men. Had there been fewer than nine female candidates, the voting requirement would have been reduced. While the voting requirement does not amount to a quota of women on the Court, it will greatly help counter the tendency to disregard the Statute’s mandates of “fair representation” of women and men.

Thus, when voting for the judges, delegates are required to vote as follows:

Expertise:

-At least 9 candidates from List A (those having criminal law experience)
-At least 5 candidates from List B (those having international law experience)

Region:

-At least 3 candidates from the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG)
-At least 3 candidates from Africa
-At least 3 candidates from the Latin American and Caribbean region (GRULAC)
-At least 2 candidates from Asia
-At least 2 candidates from Eastern Europe

Gender:

-At least 6 women and at least six men

All of the candidates are posted on the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice website: (http://www.iccwomen.org/Elections/ELECTIONSindex.htm ) with links to their cv’s and other background information on the UN’s website.

The Women’s Caucus and other NGO’s will be researching and compiling information about the candidates to distribute to the States Parties who will be voting in February. In particular, we are attempting to gather key articles or judgments the candidates have written and analyze them to see how or whether they have dealt with issues of sexual and gender violence and women’s human rights.

We will be in touch with many of you directly in an effort to get a clearer picture of the candidates’ conduct and position in national-level legal and political arenas as well as their commitment to women’s human rights at that level.

At the outset, though, we seek your assistance in compiling this information to arrive at as full and fair an assessment as possible. IN PARTICULAR, WE URGE YOU TO DO THE FOLLOWING:

 Check the Women’s Caucus website for the listing of candidates and provide any information you think is important about any of the candidates – positive or negative;

 If you find candidates you feel are unsuitable for the post, please tell us why and provide as much documentation as possible;

 If you find candidates you would like to support, let us know and also send letters of support to your country’s UN Mission and your Foreign Minister and urge them to vote for those candidates who have a demonstrated commitment to gender justice;

 If your government has put forward a candidate, check to ensure that it did so in accordance with the provisions set out in the Rome Statute for the nomination of candidates (in the same process as that for nomination to highest judicial office or to the International Court of Justice). If you find that the government did not follow this process, call this to the attention of the Women’s Caucus, your country’s UN Mission and the President of the Bureau of the ICC Assembly of States Parties (contact information can be found on the Women’s Caucus website).

If you decide to use the media as a strategy, share your press releases, statements or interviews with us and we will post them on our website.

Check the Women’s Caucus website for frequent updates, postings of press releases, media statements and other background information.

While the nomination phase was challenging in many respects and in many places, the election phase will be equally challenging. Two examples have already arisen where women’s groups at the national level have protested the nominee put forward by their country.

In Fiji, the government nominated a retired Supreme Court justice, Timoci Tuivaga, who has been implicated in efforts to abrogate Fiji’s constitution during the attempted coup in 2000. Women’s groups have been vocal in their opposition to the candidate and have received a great deal of media attention – some of which is posted on the Women’s Caucus website. They are compiling detailed information about the candidate in the form of a dossier to make available to the States Parties.

In Argentina, the government nominated a current Supreme Court justice who has been charged numerous times with allegations of corruption. Women’s groups protested the government’s appointment of Justice Antonio Boggiano because of his history of corruption and because the government passed over a highly qualified woman in the process.

In both incidents, advocates at the national level say that the governments did not follow the procedures required by the Rome Statute for the nomination. The Women’s Caucus issued press releases about these incidents and has insisted that the Bureau of the ICC Assembly of States Parties be vigilant in ensuring that governments follow the letter and spirit of the Rome Statute in the nomination process.

This election, therefore, provides an opportunity to move away from the way in which this process usually occurs in the international arena – through vote-trading and political deal-making – to one which has the needs of justice and transparency at the center of concern. It is also an opportunity to ensure that women play an equal part in the formation of the world’s first permanent criminal court.

As we compile and confirm information about the candidates, the Women’s Caucus will make the findings publicly available and we will send updates to our networks as and when timely and appropriate. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like assistance or guidance in distributing information to the States Parties about individual candidates.

In solidarity,

The Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice
P.O. Box 3541 Grand Central P.O.
New York, New York 10163 USA
Tel. (718) 626-2681 / Fax (718) 626-3528
Email: caucus@iccwomen.org / URL: www.iccwomen.org

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Candidates:

Luis Maria Benitez Riera (Paraguay - withdrawn on 13 December)
Rene Blattman (Bolivia)
Antonio Boggiano (Argentina)
Marc Bossuyt (Belgium)
Kocou A. Capo-Chichi (Benin)
Maureen Harding Clark (Ireland)
Ion Diaconu (Romania)
Fatoumata Dembele Dairra (Mali)
Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia)
Adrian Fulford (United Kingdom)
Ioannis Giannidis (Greece)
Dimitar Gochev (Bulgaria)
Bunchhat Heng Vong (Cambodia)
Karl Hudson-Phillips (Trinidad & Tobago)
Claude Jorda (France)
Ivo Josipovic (Croatia)
Adolphus G. Karibi-Whyte (Nigeria)
Hajnalka Karpati (Hungary)
Joseph-Medard Katuala Kaba Kashala (DRC)
Philippe Kirsch (Canada)
Hans-Peter Kaul (Germany)
Erkki Kourula (Finland)
Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana)
Kamugumya S.K. Lugakingira (Tanzania)
Robert MacLean Ugarteche (Peru)
Doudou Ndir (Senegal)
Rafael Nieto Navia (Colombia)
Daniel D.N. Nsereko (Uganda)
Elizabeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica)
Barbara Ott (Switzerland)
Gheorghios M. Pikis (Cyprus)
Navanethem Pillay (South Africa)
Mauro Politi (Italy)
Almiro Rodrigues (Portugal)
Victor Rodriguez-Cedeno (Venezuela)
Mory Ousmane Sissoko (Niger)
Tuiloma Neroni Slade (Samoa)
Raymond C. Sock (Gambia)
Sang-hyun Song (Republic of Korea)
Sylvia H. Steiner (Brazil)
Timoci Tuivaga (Fiji)
Anita Usacka (Latvia)
Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo (Spain)
Eleanora Zielinska (Poland)
Bostjan Zupancic (Slovenia)

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Quote…

"May I take this opportunity to encourage State Parties to nominate suitable women candidates to allow for fair representation of female and male judges on the (ICC) as the Rome Statute requires? Let us not thwart some of the most important advances on gender justice that are embodied in the Statute by failing to act in practical ways to implement them."

Sergio Vieira de Mello
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
to the 3rd Committee of the UN General Assembly
4 November 2002