Women's Caucus for Gender Justice

After 33 rounds of balloting, 18 judges have finally been elected to the International Criminal Court!

The panel of judges includes 7 women, an unprecedented and historic development.

Our thanks and congratulations to all those who helped advocate for a fair representation of women in this process and for the election of judges with the highest qualifications and integrity!

Rene Blattman (Bolivia)
Maureen Harding Clark (Ireland)
Fatoumata Diarra (Mali)
Adrian Fulford (UK)
Karl Hudson-Phillips (Trinidad & Tobago)
Claude Jorda (France)
Hans-Peter Kaul (Germany)
Philippe Kirsch (Canada)
Erkki Kourula (Finland)
Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana)
Tuiloma Neroni Slade (Samoa)
Sang-hyun Song (Republic of Korea)
Sylvia Steiner (Brazil)
Elizabeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica)
Gheorghios Pikis (Cyprus)
Navanethem Pillay (South Africa)
Mauro Politi (Italy)
Anita Usacka (Latvia)

After the first round of voting in the ICC Elections today, six women and one man were elected to the 18-member court. Voting will resume on tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. The women who were elected include:

Elizabeth Odio Benito
(Panama/Costa Rica)
Maureen Harding Clark (Ireland)
Fatoumata Diarra (Mali)
Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana)
Navanethem Pillay (South Africa)
Sylvia Steiner (Brazil)

This is a HISTORIC development for gender representation on an international tribunal and we congratulate those women who will assume a seat on the ICC.

But it must not stop here !

KEEP ADVOCATING FOR GENDER PARITY ON THE ICC.

While the delegates met the minimum voting requirement for women in the first round of elections, we stress that the requirement is a MINIMUM and NOT A MAXIMUM. We must not allow this requirement, which is intended to help ensure fair representation on the court, become a limit on women's
participation at the highest levels of this tribunal.

With 11 seats left to fill in the next rounds of voting, there is an
opportunity to ensure parity in the ICC.

PLEASE CONTINUE SENDING ACTION LETTERS TO YOUR MISSIONS AND DEMAND GENDER PARITY ON THE WORLD'S FIRST PERMANENT CRIMINAL COURT.

NOW is the MOST CRITICAL TIME time to act to ensure Gender Parity on the ICC !

The elections for judges to the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be held next week (3-7 February 2003). Please take a moment and send this action letter, or one of your own, to your Permanent Representative to the United Nations and your Foreign Minister and demand that they vote for the women candidates to the ICC. Click here for a list of emails for the UN Missions of those countries that have ratified the ICC Statute and urge you to send letters to all States Parties. For contact information for your foreign ministers, please visit: http://worldworld.com/.

Ten very qualified women and 33 men are running for the 18 seats on the Court. Please click here for a series of brief profiles of the women candidates.

We now have an opportunity to ensure a MAJORITY of women on the world's first permanent criminal court! Please don't miss this opportunity to help turn the tide for the level of women's participation in these official posts.

We will continue sending updates as the voting progresses next week and may need to call on concerned organizations and individuals around the world for further assistance. However, at this time it is imperative that governments hear from groups in the capitals and in their UN Missions in New York demanding parity on the Court - which is the only truly 'fair representation' possible.

See our election page for more information.

"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

NOMINATION PERIOD CLOSES; 10 WOMEN OUT OF 43* CANDIDATES

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. (*Paraguay and Benin have since withdrawn their candidates. Now, there are 43 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); Eleonora Zielinska (Poland). More...

NOTICE: 2 December 2002 - The President of the ICC Assembly of States Parties announced today that the nomination period for judges was closed as of Saturday, 30 November 2002, but that the Bureau would accept nominations for Prosecutor until 8 December 2002. Click here for a copy of the President's announcement. Check this website, the website of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) and the official ICC website for updates and more details. Click here for more on the elections of Judges.

New York, United Nations, 10 September 2002 - The Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court yesterday opened the period for nomination of candidates for the first eighteen judges of the court. The nomination period will close on 30 November 2002 and the elections will be held from 3-7 February 2003.

"We hope that governments 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," said Vahida Nainar of the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice. "Women must be present on this Court in significant number and we hope the procedures adopted will help ensure this." More...

United Nations, New York, 1 July - On Monday, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force marking the moment at which the future Court's jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity took effect.

Women's groups have applauded this historic development as the Rome Statute has dramatically raised the standard for recognizing crimes of sexual and gender violence as among the gravest when historically they had not been treated as such in humanitarian law.

"Women will not be forgotten as war victims anymore," said Asma Khader, a lawyer and activist from Jordan which was among 10 countries that ratified the Rome Statute in April. More...