General Assembly Elects Judge to International Court of Justice

Meeting concurrently with the Security Council, the General Assembly today elected one judge out of a pool of three candidates for the International Court of Justice in The Hague to serve a term beginning today, 4 November 2022, and ending 5 February 2027.

Elected by secret ballot was Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant (Brazil), who received an absolute majority of votes cast by the 193 Member States of the United Nations.  He will replace Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil), who died on 29 May.

Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi (Hungary) announced the results, reading a letter from the Security Council President stating that Mr. Brant received the majority of votes from the organ’s 15 members.

Voting took place simultaneously in the Security Council and the General Assembly.  (For Security Council results, please see Press Release SC/15097.)

Mr. Brant has served as Professor of International Law at Federal University of Minas Gerais since 1994.  He founded the International Law Center in Brazil in 2000 and has since served as its President.  From 2000 to 2021, he was also a Professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais.  In 2003, he served as a Legal Officer on the Registry of the Legal Department of the International Court of Justice.

Prior to voting, Member States had before them a memorandum from the Secretary‑General (document A/77/481) detailing the Court’s current composition and procedure to be followed in the Assembly and Council during the election, a list of candidates nominated by national groups (document A/77/482) and the curricula vitae of the candidates (document A/77/483).

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 worldwide.  Each must have qualifications required in his or her respective country for appointment to the highest judicial office or be a jurisconsult of recognized competencies in international law.  Each country may have only one judge, who may engage in no other occupation during the term of office.

As the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice settles legal disputes between States parties and gives advisory opinions to the Organization, as well as its specialized agencies.  The Court is open to all parties to its Statute, which automatically includes all Member States of the United Nations.

The remaining 14 judges sitting on the Court, whose terms expire either in 2024, 2027 or 2030, are its President, Joan E. Donoghue (United States); Vice-President, Kirill Gevorgian (Russian Federation); Peter Tomka (Slovakia); Ronny Abraham (France); Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco); Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (Somalia); Xue Hanqin (China); Julia Sebutinde (Uganda); Dalveer Bhandari (India); Patrick Lipton Robinson (Jamaica); Nawaf Salam (Lebanon); Iwasawa Yuji (Japan); Georg Nolte (Germany); and Hilary Charlesworth (Australia).

The General Assembly will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 7 November, to discuss the revitalization of its work and to take action on a draft resolution to proclaim 18 November of each year as the World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence.

Voting

The results of the voting were as follows: