Justice Julia Sebutinde has been elected Vice President of the International Court of Justice for a period of three years.
“Judge Sebutinde was today elected vice-president of the International Court of Justice by her peers, for a term of three years. Vice-president Sebutinde has been a member of the court since February 6 2012,” the statement from the court read.
The same court also announced that Lebanon-born judge Nawaf Salam takes over as ICJ judge-president from Joan Donoghue.
The Ugandan judge has been at the International Court of Justice for more than a decade and according to the ICJ, she has expertise in war crimes cases and handled several high-profile war crime trials including the prosecution of former Liberian politician Charles Taylor.
However, Sebutinde was last month in the news for her dissenting opinion against the court’s ruling in South Africa vs Israel case.
Justice Julia Ssebutinde ruled against the emergency measures ordered of Israel to protect Palestinians at the International Court of Justice when the issue came up at the ICJ after South Africa filed a case accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people – particularly in Gaza.
A 17-judge panel at the ICJ voted in favour of six provisional measures that order Israel to protect Palestinians including punishing and preventing acts of genocide and allowing humanitarian aid into war-battered Gaza but in her dissenting ruling, Justice Sebutinde ruled against punishing Israel.
