Security Council                                           

6346^th Meeting (AM)                                         

Security Council Elects Xue Hanqin of China to International Court of Justice,

 

in Tandem with General Assembly, to Serve Until 5 February 2012

 

In a vote held simultaneously with the General Assembly, the Security Council today elected Xue Hanqin of China, by secret ballot, to the International Court of Justice to fill the remainder of the term left vacant by the resignation of Judge, Vice-President and former President of the Court, Shi Jiuyong of China.

Ms. Xue, Chinese Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Legal Counsel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and member of the International Law Commission, will serve until 5 February 2012.

In the course of their separate meetings, the two bodies — the Security Council and General Assembly — exchanged information about the results of their respective votes, revealing that Ms. Xue received an absolute majority of votes in both organs — 15 votes in the case of the Council. 

[According to the rules of procedure, members of the International Court are elected by both the General Assembly and Security Council, acting independently of one another.  When a candidate has obtained the required majority in one of the organs, the President of that organ notifies the President of the other of that result.  If the result is different, the Assembly and Council continue voting, up to three times if necessary, until both bodies have given an absolute majority of votes to the same candidate.

If, after the third meeting, the vacancy still remains unfilled, Member States may resort to a special procedure set out in the Statute of the Court, at the request of either the Assembly or the Council. 

By that procedure, a joint conference consisting of three Assembly members and three Council members will vote for a candidate.  If the joint conference is satisfied that it will not be successful in procuring an election, members of the Court shall, within a period to be fixed by the Security Council, proceed to fill the vacant seats by selection from among those candidates who have obtained votes either in the Assembly or the Council.  In the event of an equality of votes among the judges, the eldest judge shall have a casting vote.]

The meeting began at 10:19 a.m., was suspended at 10:29 a.m. for counting, resumed at 10:58 a.m. and ended at 11:05 a.m.

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For information media • not an official record