Judge Nawaf Salam elected President of International Court of Justice; Judge Julia Sebutinde elected Vice-President

Judge Nawaf Salam, who hails from Lebanon, has been elected as the President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). .Judge Salam will serve as the ICJ President for a three-year term and succeeds Judge Joan E Donoghue (United States of America) who had been elected to the post on February 8, 2021. .Meanwhile, Judge Julia Sebutinde, who hails from Uganda, has been elected the Vice-President of the ICJ, also for a three-year term..These developments were notified by the ICJ through press releases issued on February 6, Tuesday. .Judge Salam has been a Member of the ICJ since February 6, 2018. Before joining the Court, he was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York from July 2007 to December 2017.Judge Sebutinde has been a Member of the ICJ since February 6, 2012. Before joining the Court, she was a judge at the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2005 to 2011.Notably, Judge Sebutinde was recently in the news for having pronounced a dissenting opinion in the case filed by South Africa before the ICJ alleging violations of the Genocide Convention by Israel in the Gaza Strip.In the January 26 ruling, the majority on the ICJ bench ruled in favour of extending provisional measures to protect the rights of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after finding that it was “plausible” that their rights under the Prevention of Genocide Convention were being violated by Israel.However, Judge Sebutinde opined that the Israel-Palestine conflict calls for a diplomatic or negotiated settlement and that it was not a legal dispute that could be settled by the Court.The Judge also found that South Africa has not demonstrated even on a prima facie basis, that the alleged acts of Israel had "genocidal intent", owing to which provisional measures were not warranted from the court.The Judge went on to term South Africa's case a "desperate bid" to force a case into the context of a treaty to foster its judicial settlement..[Read Press Release]