Sixty-fourth General Assembly                              

Plenary                                                    

102^ndMeeting (AM)

General Assembly Elects China’s Xue Hanqin to Serve as Judge

 

on International Court of Justice until February 2012

 

In one round of balloting today, the General Assembly elected Xue Hanqin (China) as a member of the International Court of Justice, in an election run independently of but concurrently with the Security Council.

Ms. Xue, who will be in office until 5 February 2012, will complete the unexpired term of Judge Shi Jiuyong ( China), former Vice-President and President of the Court, whose resignation took effect on 28 May.  Elected to the Court on 10 November 1993 and re-elected on 21 October 2002, Mr. Shi’s term would have expired on 5 February 2012.

The Court’s justices are elected by obtaining an absolute majority of votes in both the Assembly and the Council, without regard to their nationality, from among persons of high moral character around the world.  For the present election, 97 votes constituted an absolute majority.  (For election results from the Security Council, please see Press Release SC/9964)

Taking account of Mr. Shi’s resignation, the Court is now composed of President Hisashi Owada ( Japan) and Vice-President Peter Tomka ( Slovakia), whose terms of office expire on 5 February 2012.  Its Judges are Ronny Abraham (France), Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh (Jordan), Mohamed Bennouna ( Morocco), Thomas Buergenthal ( United States), Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade ( Brazil), Christopher Greenwood ( United Kingdom), Kenneth Keith ( New Zealand), Abdul G. Koroma ( Sierra Leone), Bernardo Sepúlveda-Amor ( Mexico), Bruno Simma ( Germany), Leonid Skotnikov ( Russian Federation) and Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf ( Somalia).

Voting Results

In one round of voting, the General Assembly today elected Xue Hanqin ( China) to the International Court of Justice, to fill a seat vacated by Shi Jiuyong ( China).

The results of the balloting were as follows:

Number of ballot papers:	152
Number of invalid ballots:	0
Number of valid ballots:	152
Abstentions:	2
Number of Members present and voting:	150
Absolute majority:	97
Number of individual votes obtained:
Ms. Xue Hanqin	150

Having obtained the required majority of votes from the members of the Assembly, Xue Hanqin was elected a member of the International Court of Justice.

The General Assembly will reconvene at a time and date to be announced.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record