Five new judges elected to International Court of Justice

New York (VNA) - The United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council on November 12 elected five judges to serve at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a term of nine-year.

The five new judges are Yuji Iwasawa from Japan, Georg Nolte from Germany, Xue Hanqin from China, Peter Tomka from Slovakia and Julia Sebutinde from Uganda.

They are therefore duly elected members of the International Court of Justice to serve for a nine-year term commencing February 6, 2021.

The International Court of Justice holds the responsibility in rectifying the legal disputes between UN member states and is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms by a vote held independently at the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. 

The ICJ is one of the UN's six principal organs and its election is held every three years for five seats with no bar on consecutive terms. During this year's election, eight candidates, four of which are current ICJ members, were contesting the five positions. Meanwhile, German jurist Nolte will serve his first term at the ICJ.

Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission to the UN, casted his vote at the UN Security Council, while Ambassador Pham Hai Anh, deputy head of the mission, voted at the UN General Assembly. This is the second time that Vietnam has elected ICJ judges as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and member of the UN. The first time was in 2008./.