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After 15 Rounds Of Voting, Eboe-Osuji Emerges First Nigerian ICC Judge[/size]

December 18, 2011


After a tightly contested election which began last Monday, Nigeria's candidate in the International Criminal Court (ICC) judicial elections, Chile Eboe-Osuji, has clinched one of the six seats on the bench of the ICC.

This is the first time Nigeria will have such a high ranking position in the ICC since 2002 when the Rome Statute - the legal basis for establishing the permanent International Criminal Court - came into force.

ICC is a permanent tribunal created to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and from 2017, it will also start exercising jurisdiction over crime of aggression.





Eboe-Osuji, who clinched the last available slot in the fiftteenth round of voting held on Friday at the United Nations headquarters in New York after securing 102 votes, will serve for nine years as ICC judge,

Eboe-Osuji, whose nomination is on List A, garnered 34 votes in the first round of voting held on Monday, December 12, during which Trinidad and Tobago, and Philippines emerged winners with 72 and 79 votes respectively.
The two-third required majority for the first round where 104 states parties voted was 70.

In the second round of voting held on Tuesday, Nigeria had 39 votes while the two-third required majority had risen to 72 as 107 states parties participated. Czech Republic however clinched a seat in that round of voting with 77 votes.

In the third and fourth rounds with 72 and 78 as two-third required majority votes respectively, Nigeria got 41 votes in each round. No winner emerged in those two rounds.

Nigeria got 51, 52, 57 and 58 votes in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth rounds respectively but could still not meet the two-third required votes-which was hovering between 77 and 78 - to clinch a seat.

The candidate of Britain, Howard Morrison, clinched one of the two slots in the thirteenth round of voting after securing 72 votes. The candidate of France however withdrew from the contest after the fourteenth round, thereby living Nigeria to contest in the fifteenth round unpposed.

Countries whose candidates could also not secure the two-third required majority to emerge as ICC judge during the various rounds of voting include Colombia, Poland, Mexico, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Central African Republic, Niger, Burkina Faso, Sierra-Leone, Mauritius and Democratic Republic of Congo. Tunisia, another African country, withdrew before the first round of voting.

Eboe-Osuji, whose candidacy, and that of Mauritius, were endorsed by the African Union had served as Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, and also worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), where he served as Principal Legal Adviser to the Chambers between 2008 and 2009.

http://www.channelstv.com/global/news_details.php?nid=30683&cat=Local

Good one.