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Press Release
5 September 2002
WOMEN'S GROUPS APPLAUD SWISS ANNOUNCEMENT
OF FIRST FEMALE CANDIDATE FOR THE ICC
United Nations, New York - Women's groups attending the first session of
the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court have
applauded Switzerland's announcement of the first woman as candidate for
judge of the court with its selection of Ms. Barbara Ott, a former
military judge and expert at the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda.
"We are very happy to see Switzerland begin what we hope will be a
serious trend toward seeking out and nominating qualified women to this
historic judicial institution," said Vahida Nainar, Executive
Committee member of the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, a global
network of individuals and organizations which formed in 1997 to ensure
that the negotiations toward the International Criminal Court took
women's experiences of war into account.
Article 36 of the Rome Statute requires that judges have established
competence in criminal law and/or international law. In addition,
article 36(8) of the Statute mandates a fair representation of women and
men, equitable geographical distribution and representation of the
principle legal systems of the world. In the ad hoc tribunals
established by the Security Council for the Former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda, the number of women as judges has been appallingly low.
NGO's and women's groups in particular have assailed the prior UN
election processes as too politicized and clandestine. The elections for
the ICC, as the world's first independent judicial institution, must be
transparent and take into account the need for a presence of women on
the Court as well as expert judges from all regions, they say.
Delegates at the Assembly of States Parties are currently negotiating
rules which will govern the election of judges to the ICC. In recent
sessions debates have stalled on the issue of requirements in the voting
process that would help ensure a presence of women and judges from the
regions on the court. Already, NGO's have witnessed the tendency toward
deal-making that has accompanied past elections.
"It is appalling to see the way some government delegates are
attempting to rig the election rules to ensure their candidates easily
ascend to this Court," Nainar said. "We hope that governments
would realize the significance of the first elections for this Court and
understand that they cannot go about this as if it's business as usual.
The light has been cast on this process and the world will be watching
these elections closely - which has not been the case in the past."
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Contact: Reena Geevarghese
Tel. (718) 626-2681
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