Ugandan Judge Sebutinde Elected Vice President of ICJ

Ugandan Judge, Julia Sebutinde has been elected the Vice President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

Justice Sebutinde was elected by her peers, for a period of 3 years, a statement from the ICJ reads. 

Sebutinde has been a member of ICJ since 6th February 2012. Before being elected to the ICJ, Sebutinde was a judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She was appointed to that position in 2005 to 2011.

Her election comes a week after capturing headlines for her controversial dissenting opinion where she was the only judge who voted against all measures sought by South Africa in its genocide case against Israel.

In a dissenting opinion, Sebutinde stated, “In my respectful dissenting opinion the dispute between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine is essentially and historically a political one.”

“It is not a legal dispute susceptible to judicial settlement by the Court,” she added.

Sebutinde was born in February 1954 and attended Lake Victoria Primary School in Entebbe. After finishing primary school, she went to Gayaza High School. She later pursued her degree at Makerere University and received a bachelor of laws degree in 1977, at the age of 23.

 She is the first African woman to sit on the international court.