2014 International Criminal Court judges election

Six judges of the International Criminal Court were elected during the 13th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court scheduled for 8 to 17 December 2014 in New York. The judges were elected for terms of nine years and took office on 11 March 2015.

Background

Song Sang-Hyun, then President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was one of six judges whose terms expired on 11 March 2015.

The judges elected at this session replaced those six judges which were elected at the second election of ICC judges in 2006 for a full term of nine years; they will also serve for nine years until 2024.

The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:

• (i) The representation of the principal legal systems of the world;
• (ii) Equitable geographical representation; and
• (iii) A fair representation of female and male judges."

Furthermore, article 36(3)(b) and 36(5) provide for two lists:

• List A contains those judges that "[h]ave established competence in criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in other similar capacity, in criminal proceedings";
• List B contains those who "[h]ave established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court".

Each candidate has to belong to exactly one list.

Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.

Judges remaining in office

As of August 2014, the following judges are scheduled to remain in office beyond 2015:

Judge

Country

Lists A or B

Regional criteria

Gender

List A

List B

African

Asian

E. European

GRULAG

WEOG

Female

Male

Joyce Aluoch

Kenya

X

X

X

Miriam Defensor Santiago

Philippines

X

X

X

Chile Eboe-Osuji

Nigeria

X

X

X

Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi

Argentina

X

X

X

Robert Fremr

Czech Republic

X

X

X

Geoffrey A. Henderson

Trinidad and Tobago

X

X

X

Olga Venecia Herrera Carbuccia

Dominican Republic

X

X

X

Sanji Mmasenono Monageng

Botswana

X

X

X

Howard Morrison

United Kingdom

X

X

X

Kuniko Ozaki

Japan

X

X

X

Cuno Tarfusser

Italy

X

X

X

Christine van den Wyngaert

Belgium

X

X

X

9

3

3

2

1

3

3

7

5

Nomination process

Following these rules, the nomination period of judges for the 2014 election lasts from 28 April to 20 July 2014. It was extended once due to the lack of candidates from Asia until 3 August 2014. The following persons were nominated as of 4 August 2014:

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender
Reine Alapini-Gansou	Benin	List B	Africa	Female
Abdelkader Ben Ali Bahloul	Tunisia	List A	Africa	Male
Emmanuel Yaw Benneh	Ghana	List B	Africa	Male
Toma Birmontienė	Lithuania	List B	Eastern Europe	Female
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant	Brazil	List B	Latin America and Caribbean	Male
Chung Chang-ho	Republic of Korea	List A	Asia	Male
Zlata Đurđević	Croatia	List B	Eastern Europe	Female
Pavel Gontšarov	Estonia	List A	Eastern Europe	Male
Piotr Hofmański	Poland	List A	Eastern Europe	Male
Péter Kovács	Hungary	List B	Eastern Europe	Male
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua	Democratic Republic of the Congo	List B	Africa	Male
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira	Timor-Leste	List A	Asia	Female
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut	France	List B	Western Europe and Others	Male
Harimahefa Ratiaraisoa	Madagascar	List B	Africa	Female
Bertram Schmitt	Germany	List A	Western Europe and Others	Male
Krister Hans Thelin	Sweden	List A	Western Europe and Others	Male
Mindia Ugrekhelidze	Georgia	List A	Eastern Europe	Male

Minimum voting requirements

Minimum voting requirements govern part of the election. This is to ensure that article 36(8)(a) cited above was fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements will exist; they will be adjusted once the election is underway.

Assuming that there is no change in the bench, the voting requirements will be as follows:

Criterion	Number of judges required	Number of judges remaining in office	Ex ante voting requirement	Current number of candidates	Adjusted voting requirement	Adjusted voting requirement equals ex ante?	Extension of nomination period necessary?
Lists A or B
List A	9	9	0	8	0	Yes	No
List B	5	3	2	9	2	Yes	No
Regional criteria
African states	3	3	0	5	0	Yes	No
Asian states	3	2	1	2	1	Yes	No
Eastern European states	3	1	2	6	2	Yes	No
Latin American and Caribbean States	3	3	0	1	0	Yes	No
Western European and other States	3	3	0	3	0	Yes	No
Gender criteria
Female	6	7	0	5	0	Yes	No
Male	6	5	1	12	1	Yes	No

Regarding the List A or B requirement, there are two seats reserved for List B judges. This requirement must be fulfilled under any circumstances.

Regarding the regional criteria, there are three seats reserved for regional groups: two for the Eastern European States and one for the Asian States.

Regarding the gender criteria, there is one seat reserved for male candidates.

The regional and gender criteria can be adjusted even before the election depending on the number of candidates. Paragraph 20(b) of the ASP resolution that governs the elections states that if there are less than double the number of candidates required for each region, the minimum voting requirement would have been a (rounded-up) half of the number of candidates; except when there is only one candidate which would result in no voting requirement.

The regional and gender criteria will be dropped either if they are not (jointly) possible any more, or if after four ballots not all seats are filled.

Ballots

All results are from the ASP homepage if not otherwise noted.

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender	8 December 2014	9 December 2014			10 December 2014			12 December 2014
					1st ballot	2nd ballot	3rd ballot	4th ballot	5th ballot	6th ballot	7th ballot	8th ballot	9th ballot	10th ballot	11th ballot
Valid votes cast					104	107	116	116	116	117	119	113	117	118	117
Two-thirds majority					70	72	78	78	78	78	80	76	78	79	78
Chung Chang-ho	Republic of Korea	List A	Asia	Male	73	elected
Piotr Hofmański	Poland	List A	Eastern Europe	Male	63	66	72	87	elected
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut	France	List B	Western Europe and Others	Male	61	58	67	75	73	87	elected
Bertram Schmitt	Germany	List A	Western Europe and Others	Male	67	68	69	71	71	79	elected
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua	Democratic Republic of the Congo	List B	Africa	Male	39	42	51	54	66	65	69	71	77	84	elected
Péter Kovács	Hungary	List B	Eastern Europe	Male	52	59	59	68	56	63	54	57	56	55	46
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira	Timor-Leste	List A	Asia	Female	38	19	20	24	35	34	34	29	33	31	29
Krister Hans Thelin	Sweden	List A	Western Europe and Others	Male	44	45	44	52	43	43	35	37	37	36	28
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant	Brazil	List B	Latin America and Caribbean	Male	34	35	27	28	34	33	22	24	22	19	14
Reine Alapini-Gansou	Benin	List B	Africa	Female	12	16	20	23	15	13	6	4	3	3	withdrawn
Zlata Đurđević	Croatia	List B	Eastern Europe	Female	35	35	34	38	24	26	10	withdrawn
Mindia Ugrekhelidze	Georgia	List A	Eastern Europe	Male	23	20	25	23	15	10	3	withdrawn
Toma Birmontienė	Lithuania	List B	Eastern Europe	Female	22	20	27	25	12	withdrawn
Pavel Gontšarov	Estonia	List A	Eastern Europe	Male	26	23	27	withdrawn
Abdelkader Ben Ali Bahloul	Tunisia	List A	Africa	Male	12	15	17	withdrawn
Harimahefa Ratiaraisoa	Madagascar	List B	Africa	Female	11	8	14	withdrawn
Emmanuel Yaw Benneh	Ghana	List B	Africa	Male	5	3	withdrawn

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender	15 December 2014							16 December 2014
					12th ballot	13th ballot	14th ballot	15th ballot	16th ballot	17th ballot	18th ballot	19th ballot	20th ballot	21st ballot	22nd ballot
Valid votes cast					114	117	117	111	114	115	114	110	114	115	116
Two-thirds majority					76	78	78	74	76	77	76	74	76	77	78
Péter Kovács	Hungary	List B	Eastern Europe	Male	44	60	60	59	62	65	65	66	70	73	79
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira	Timor-Leste	List A	Asia	Female	46	57	57	52	52	50	49	44	44	42	37
Krister Hans Thelin	Sweden	List A	Western Europe and Others	Male	24	withdrawn
Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant	Brazil	List B	Latin America and Caribbean	Male	withdrawn

Minimum voting requirements (MVR)

Minimum voting requirement	MVRs before ballots	MVR fulfilled?
Asian judges	1	Yes, fulfilled after 1st ballot
Eastern European judges	2	Yes, discontinued after 4th ballot but fulfilled after 22nd ballot
Male judges	1	Yes, fulfilled after 1st ballot
List B judges	2	Yes, fulfilled after 10th ballot