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PRESS RELEASE - 13 March 2001

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO ELECT ICTY JUDGES
ON WEDNESDAY (14 MARCH)

ONLY 1 WOMAN ON LIST OF 26 NOMINEES

NGO'S, WOMEN'S GROUPS OUTRAGED AT APPALLING LACK
OF REPRESENTATION

NEW YORK - On Wednesday, March 14, the General Assembly will vote to elect judges for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). They will select from a list of 26 nominees that includes only one woman. The sole female candidate is already a judge at the ICTY and if re-elected would be the only woman serving at that tribunal.

NGO's and women's groups have called on Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek to reopen the nomination process due to the appalling lack of female representation. In his capacity as Secretary-General, Mr. Annan has the duty to remind countries of their obligations to seek out and nominate qualified female candidates. Such disparities are unacceptable generally, but especially in light of the mandates the UN has placed upon itself to mainstream gender and the obligations to ensure a presence of women in top posts in the wake of Security Council resolution 1325 regarding Women and Peacebuilding.

NGO's have also called upon Security Council members to call for a vote for a resolution to reopen the process and to facilitate the nomination of qualified women. In addition, NGO's have criticized the lack of transparency and political deal-making that accompany these selection processes for both the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Though women judges at both the ICTY and ICTR have always been too few in number, they have been critical to ensuring that widespread and horrific crimes against women were properly charged and prosecuted. Without their presence, crimes against women would have likely gone unaddressed as has been the case in past international tribunals.

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