United Nations General Assembly and Security Council elect four Members of the Court

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928
Website: www.icj-cij.org Twitter Account: @CIJ_ICJ YouTube Channel: CIJ ICJ
Press Release
Unofficial
No. 2017/34
10 November 2017
United Nations General Assembly and Security Council elect four Members of the Court
THE HAGUE, 10 November 2017. The General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations yesterday elected four Members of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a term of office of nine years, beginning on 6 February 2018.
Judges Ronny Abraham (France), Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (Somalia) and Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil) were re-elected as Members of the Court. Mr. Nawaf Salam (Lebanon) was elected as a new Member of the Court.
The election of a fifth Member of the Court could not be concluded on Thursday, since no candidate obtained a majority in both the General Assembly and the Security Council. That election will continue on Monday 13 November 2017.
The biographies of the re-elected Members of the Court are available on the Court’s website (www.icj-cij.org) under the heading “The Court”. The biography of the newly elected Member is annexed to this press release.
In February 2018, the Court as newly constituted will proceed to elect from among its Members a President and a Vice-President, who will hold office for three years.
Composition of the Court: General
The International Court of Justice, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, comprises 15 judges, who are each elected to a nine-year term of office and may be re-elected. In order to ensure a measure of continuity in the composition of the Court, one third of the membership is renewed every three years. In accordance with Article 2 of the Statute of the Court, judges are elected “regardless of their nationality from among persons of high moral character, who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law”. Article 9 of the Statute further requires that, “in the body as a whole the representation of the main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world should be assured”. No two Members of the Court may be of the same nationality.
Submission of candidacies
All States parties to the Statute of the Court (currently 193) have the right to propose candidates. However, candidates are not nominated directly by governments but by the national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) or, in the case of States not participating in the
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PCA, by similarly constituted national groups. The Permanent Court of Arbitration, which is based in The Hague, was established under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Each State party to those Conventions (currently 121) has its own national group, that is to say, a group of up to four jurists who can be called upon to serve as members of an arbitral tribunal under the Conventions. When an election takes place to fill vacancies at the International Court of Justice, each national group can propose up to four candidates, not more than two of whom may be of its own nationality. The others may be from any other country. The names of candidates must be communicated to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Election procedure
Members of the Court are elected by the General Assembly and by the Security Council. These organs vote at the same time but independently of one another. This procedure is intended to ensure, as far as possible, that the vote in one organ does not influence the vote in the other. In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both organs, that is to say, currently 97 votes in the General Assembly and eight votes in the Security Council, where no right of veto applies for the purpose of the election and no distinction is made between the votes of the permanent and non-permanent members of the Council.
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Photographs and videos of the elections are available on the United Nations website and on UN Web TV at the following addresses: www.unmultimedia.org/photo and http://webtv.un.org/.
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter in June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York. The Court has a twofold role: first, to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States (its judgments have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned); and, second, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and agencies of the system. The Court is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. Independent of the United Nations Secretariat, it is assisted by a Registry, its own international secretariat, whose activities are both judicial and diplomatic, as well as administrative. The official languages of the Court are French and English. Also known as the “World Court”, it is the only court of a universal character with general jurisdiction.
The ICJ, a court open only to States for contentious proceedings, and to certain organs and institutions of the United Nations system for advisory proceedings, should not be confused with the other  mostly criminal  judicial institutions based in The Hague and adjacent areas, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY, an ad hoc court created by the Security Council), the International Criminal Court (ICC, the first permanent international criminal court, established by treaty, which does not belong to the United Nations system), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, an international judicial body with an independent legal personality, established by the United Nations Security Council upon the request of the Lebanese Government and composed of Lebanese and international judges), the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT, mandated to take over residual functions from the ICTY as well as from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania), the Kosovo Specialist
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Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (an ad hoc judicial institution which has its seat in The Hague), or the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA, an independent institution which assists in the establishment of arbitral tribunals and facilitates their work, in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1899).
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Information Department:
Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336)
Ms Joanne Moore, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)
Mr. Avo Sevag Garabet, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)
Annex to Press Release 2017/34
Curriculum vitae as published by the UN Secretariat in document A/72/183–S/2017/621
Nawaf Salam (Lebanon)
[Original: Arabic, English and French]
Personal information:
Citizen of Lebanon
Born in Beirut on December 15, 1953
Education:
Doctorat d’Etat (PhD), Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po.), Paris (1992)
LL.M. (Master of Laws), Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA (1991)
Licence en Droit (LLB), Lebanese University, Beirut (1984)
Doctorat en Histoire (PhD), Sorbonne University, Paris (1979)
Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies, Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po.), Paris (1979)
Diplôme, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (1974)
Professional experience:
Diplomacy:
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York, as of July 2007
Represented Lebanon in the Security Council in 2010 and 2011, for its two-year term as a non-permanent member, and assumed the Presidency of said Council for the months of May 2010 and September 2011
Vice-President of the 67th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Sept. 2012-Sept. 2013) and Acting-President of said Assembly in July 2013
Represents Lebanon in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, as of January 1, 2016
Head of the Lebanese delegation to the Climate Change Summit (Paris 2015); Head of the Lebanese delegation to the International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa 2015); Head of the Lebanese delegation to the South-South and Triangular Cooperation High-Level meeting (Dhaka 2015); Member of the Lebanese delegation to the South American-Arab Countries Summit (Lima 2012); Member of the Lebanese delegation to the Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio de Janeiro 2012); Member of the United Nations Security Council field mission to Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya (2011); Member of the United Nations Security Council field mission to Uganda and Sudan (2010); Member of the United Nations Security Council field mission to Afghanistan (2010); Head of the Lebanese delegation to the ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (Havana 2009); Member of the Lebanese
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delegation to the Climate Change Summit (Copenhagen 2009); Member of the Lebanese delegation to the Summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (Dakar 2008)
Private law practice:
Attorney at Law, member of the Beirut Bar Association: Counseled and represented diverse international and domestic, public and private entities in Beirut, Lebanon (1984-1989 & 1992-2007) and in Boston, USA (1989-1992). Primary fields of practice: general litigation; public and private international law; international transactions
Academia:
American University of Beirut, Chair of the Political Studies and Public Administration Department (2005-2007), Associate Professor (2003-2007), Lecturer (1992-2003, 1985-1989) Harvard Law School, Visiting researcher (1989-1990).
Sorbonne University, Paris, Centre d’Histoire de l’Islam Contemporain, Chercheur associé (1984-1985).
Harvard University, Center for International Affairs, Visiting scholar (1981-1982).
Sorbonne University, Paris, Chargé de Cours/Lecturer (1979-1981).
Relevant courses taught include: Introduction to International Law, Special Topics in International Relations and International Law, Survey of International Relations, Senior Seminar on International Law and Diplomacy, Graduate Seminar on International Law, Graduate Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Diplomacy, Graduate Seminar on International Environmental Law, Graduate Tutorial in International Law
Other activities:
Member and Rapporteur of the Lebanese National Electoral Law Commission, entrusted with the task of preparing the draft of a new electoral law for Lebanon (2005-2006); Member of the Lebanese National Commission of UNESCO (2000-2004); Member of the Executive Bureau of the Socio-Economic Council of Lebanon (1999-2002)
Publications:
Author of numerous books, essays and articles, including several works in the fields of International, Constitutional, Electoral, and Islamic Law as well as on International Organizations and International Affairs. Selected works:
Editor and contributor [Introduction]: Lebanon in the Security Council 2010-2011, (in Arabic), Dar Al Saqi, Beirut, 2012
“Taif’s Dysfunctions and the Need for Constitutional Reform” in Youssef Choueiri, Breaking the Cycle, Stacey International, London, 2007
Editor and contributor [Chapter: “La Crise de la Ligue Arabe”]: Le Moyen-Orient à l’Epreuve de l’Irak, Actes-Sud/Sindbad, Paris, 2005
Editor and contributor [Chapter: “Reforming the Electoral System: a Comparative Perspective”]: Options for Lebanon, I.B.Tauris, London and New York, 2004 (Arabic version published by Dar Annahar)
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Co-author with Karim Makdisi, “What Possible Role for the United Nations in Iraq? Preliminary Thoughts in Light of Previous United Nations Peace Operations in Cambodia, Kosovo, East Timor, and Afghanistan” in Iraq and the Region after the War: Issues of Economic and Social Reconstruction (in Arabic), UN/ESCWA, Beirut, 2004, pp. 275-301
L’accord de Taif, un réexamen critique, Dar Annahar, Beyrouth, 2003
Civil Society in the Arab World, Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School, Occasional Publications, Cambridge, 2002
“The Independence of the Judiciary between Text and Practice” (in Arabic) in Ab’ad 5, June 1996, pp. 90-94
Co-author with Philipp D. O'Neill, Jr. “Is the exceptio non adimpleti contractus part of Lex Mercatoria?” in Emmanuel Gaillard (ed.), Transnational Rules in International Commercial Arbitration, International Chamber of Commerce/International Law Association, Paris, 1993, pp. 147-159
“The Emergence of Citizenship in Islamdom” in Arab Law Quarterly, Vol. 12, Part 2, 1997, pp. 125-147 (Reprinted in John W. Jandora, States Without Citizens, Praeger Security International, Westport and London, 2008. pp. 67-91; French version in La condition libanaise. Communautés, citoyen, Etat; suivi de: La citoyenneté en pays d’Islam)
“Between Repatriation and Resettlement: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon” in Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XXIV/1, No. 93, 1994, pp. 18-27 (French version in Revue d’Etudes Palestiniennes [53] 1, automne 1994; Arabic version in Majallat al-Dirasat al-Falastiniyya, No. 19, summer 1994; German version in Palästinenser im Libanon, Palästinensische Flüchtlinge und der Friedensprozeß, April 2002)
Special projects:
Co-author of the Draft Law submitted by the “Special Electoral Law Commission” to the Government of Lebanon in June 2006; principal drafter of the related Report of the Commission, and editor of its nineteen volumes of annexes
Public lectures and presentations:
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, New York (2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015)/International Peace Institute, New York (2015)/Yale University Law School (2014)/New York University (2013)/Council on Foreign Relations, New York (1994 & 2012)/University of Rabat, Morocco (2012)/Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government (1982 & 2010)/Saint Joseph University, Lebanon (2003 & 2006)/Balamand University, Lebanon (1993, 1996 & 2006)/American University of Beirut, Lebanon (1995, 2001 & 2005)/Cultural Center, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2004) Freiburg University, Germany (1989 & 2003)/University of Cairo, Egypt (2003)/Mainz University, Germany (2002)/Sagesse University, Lebanon (2002)/Harvard University Law School Worldwide Alumni Congress, Paris (2001)/Oxford University, (1994, 1997 & 1999)/The Shuman Foundation, Jordan (1997 & 1999)/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1991 & 1996)/Boston University (1996)/Sciences Po, Centre d’Etudes des Relations Internationales, Paris (1995)/Sorbonne University, Paris (1980, 1981, 1985 & 1992)/Yale University (1991)/Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Affairs (1991)/U.S. Institute for Peace, Washington, D.C. (1990)/Harvard University Law School (1990)/Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1989)/The University of London (1988)/The American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C. (1984)/Harvard University, Center for International Affairs (1982 & 1986)
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Languages:
Arabic, English, French
Decorations:
French Légion d’honneur at the rank of Officer
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