Female judges from Benin and Uganda join ICC

Two Africans have been elected as judges of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands during the Assembly of State Parties meeting in New York on Wednesday.

The election procedure required a two/thirds majority of eighty votes for one to be elected as a judge of the International Court which adjudicates on cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity..

After four rounds of voting, Justice Reine Alapini-Gansou from Benin and Justice Solomy Bossa of Uganda got elected with a total of eighty three (83) and eighty one (81) votes respectively.

Ghana’s Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu failed in her bid to join the court as she ended with a total of sixty votes which fell short of the votes required.

Elected judge of the ICC, Reine Alapini Gansou is a Lawyer to the Bar of Benin since 1986 and Law lecturer at the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) since 2000.

Justice Alapini Gansou is the Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights since 2009.
She has been a member of the Commission since 2005 and was formerly the Special Rapporteur on Rights of Human Rights Defenders in Africa (2005-2009).

She served as a member of the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration since July 19, 2011, and Laureate of the Prize of Human Rights for the Fiftieth year of African Countries independence in 2010.

Her good works saw her selected as a member of the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on post-electoral violence in Cote d’Ivoire (May-June 2011)

She holds two High Level University degrees, in Common Law at the University of Lyon in 2007 and in Environmental Law and Politic at the University of Lome, Maastricht and Bhutan in 1999.

She is also an author and co-author of research papers in Human rights and Law.

Justice Solomy Balungi Bossa on the other hand is a national of the Republic of Uganda who was elected Judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in June 2014, for a term of six years.

She has served as Judge with the High Court or Uganda for sixteen years (1997-2013).

She also served the East African Court of Justice for five years (2001-2006), the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR) for nine and half years (2003-2013) and currently serves as Judge on the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court for Uganda.

She was once a Lecturer/Law Reporter at the Law Development Centre of Uganda for seventeen years (1981-1997).

She is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, the international Association of Women Judges, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights and the East African Judges and Magistrate’s Association, among others.

At national level, she is a member of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Uganda Chapter, the National Association of Women Judges, and the Uganda Association of Judges and Magistrates.

She also participated through the aegis of the International Commission for Jurists, in the initial stages of drafting of the Additional Protocol on Women to the African Charter.

She holds a Bachelor of Law Degree (LL.B) Honors from Makerere University.

She is a candidate for a Master of Law Degree (LL.M) from the University of London.

She has received various national, regional and inter-national awards in recognition of her distinguished services as a legal practitioner, judge and human rights activist.

The two African justices join four others from Japan, Canada, Peru and Italy to fill six slots available