Profiles of the ICC judges

Written By:Margaret Kalekye/ICC,    Posted: Thu, Mar 29, 2012

The three judges will handle the two Kenyan cases PROFILES 1. Judge Christine VAN DEN WYNGAERT (Belgium) Judge as of 11 March 2009, for a term of nine years. Assigned to the Trial Division. Elected from the Western European and Others Group of States, list A. Judge Van den Wyngaert (1952) graduated from Brussels University in 1974 and obtained a PhD in International Criminal Law in 1979. She was a professor of law at the University of Antwerp (1985 - 2005) where she taught criminal law, criminal procedure, comparative criminal law and international criminal law. She authored numerous publications in all these fields. She was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge (Centre for European Legal Studies (1994 - 1996), Research Centre for International Law (1996 ‑1997)) and a visiting professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2001). Her merits as an academic were recognised in the form of a Doctorate Honoris Causa, awarded by the University of Uppsala, Sweden (2001).  In 2010, she was awarded a doctorate honoris causa by the University of Brussels, Belgium. She was an expert for the two major scientific organisations in her field, the International Law Association and the International Association of Penal Law. She was an observer of the Human Rights League at the trial of Helen Passtoors in Johannesburg in 1986 and made human rights a focal point in her teachings and writings throughout her career. In 2006, she was awarded the Prize of the Human Rights League. She served in the International Court of Justice as an ad hoc judge in the Arrest Warrant Case (2000 - 2002) and was elected as a judge in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia where she served for more than five years (2003 - 2009). 2. Judge Kuniko OZAKI (Japan)  Judge as of 20 January, 2010, for a term of eight years and two months (to fill a judicial vacancy). Assigned to the Trial Division. Elected from the Asian Group of States, list B. Judge Ozaki (1956) has extensive practical and academic experience in the field of international criminal law and human rights. Having graduated from Tokyo University in 1978 and obtained an M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford University in 1982, she worked for the Japanese government in a number of positions, including Ambassador and Special Assistant to the Foreign Ministry, Director for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the Foreign Ministry, Director for Refugees in the Justice Ministry and Specialist to the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the Justice Ministry. From 2006 to 2009, she served as Director for Treaty Affairs for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), where her main responsibility was implementation of relevant international treaties as well as the development of domestic legislation on organised crime, corruption and terrorism; the training of judges and prosecutors in developing countries; and the establishment of the rule of law and national criminal justice systems in post-conflict regions. Using her vast experience as an academic lawyer, Judge Ozaki also taught as a professor of international law at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Law and at other national universities, and has written extensively on international criminal law, refugee law and law of human rights. 3. Judge Chile EBOE-OSUJI (Nigeria) Judge as of 11 March 2012, for a term of nine years.  Elected from the African Group of States, List A. Judge Eboe-Osuji (1962) came to the ICC from his post as the Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Dr Navi Pillay (a former Judge of the ICC), with cross-appointment as Principal Appeals Counsel for the Prosecution in the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). He had previously worked in various other capacities at the SCSL and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR): among them, as Senior Prosecution Appeals Counsel at the SCSL in the AFRC Case and the CDF Case, Lead Prosecution Trial Counsel at the ICTR, the Head of Chambers at the ICTR, Senior Legal Officer in Chambers at the ICTR, and Head Legal Officer in the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR. As the Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, he led the writing of submissions filed on behalf of the High Commissioner in her interventions as amicus curiae before the European Court of Human Rights (in the El Masri Case and the Hirsi Case) and the United States Supreme Court (in the Kiobel Case). He had also taught international criminal law as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Canada, and has an extensive record of legal scholarship and publications. He served as legal expert to Nigeria's delegation to the ICC-ASP Special Working Group on the Definition of the Crime of Aggression. He has also practised law as a barrister: appearing in many criminal, civil and constitutional cases before national courts in Nigeria and Canada. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986, and to the Bars of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia in 1993. He served as articled student-at-law to Chief Mike Ahamba SAN and Mr David W Scott QC-of Nigeria and Canada, respectively. He holds an LLB from the University of Calabar, Nigeria, an LLM from McGill University, Canada, and a PhD in international criminal law from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Judge Eboe-Osuji is a son of Chief M V Eboe-Osuji and Mrs Clara Nnenze Eboe-Osuji of Añara, Imo, Nigeria. He is married to Shannon Fleming Eboe-Osuji. They have three children.