UN elects five judges to International Court of Justice amid record cases

What the report says

The United Nations has elected five new judges to the International Court of Justice, filling all seats on the 15-member bench after several rounds of voting at UN headquarters in New York. The judges were chosen for nine-year terms beginning on February 6, 2027, after candidates needed support from both the General Assembly and the Security Council. The elected judges are Dapo Akande of the United Kingdom, Francois Alabrune of France, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud of Jordan, Rena Lee of Singapore and Phoebe Okowa of Kenya.

According to Al Jazeera, the hardest contest was over the fifth seat. The two UN chambers initially agreed on four candidates but could not settle on a fifth, with the Security Council backing Ecuador’s Marcelo Vazquez-Bermudez and the General Assembly first favoring Okowa. Vazquez-Bermudez later withdrew, and Okowa won support from both bodies. The ballots were secret and held at the same time but separately.

The election comes as the world court faces what its president has described as a record workload. Al Jazeera reported that 24 contentious cases are pending, including disputes involving territory, human rights and treaty interpretation. Among the highest-profile matters is South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over the war in Gaza. The ICJ, based in The Hague, is the UN’s main judicial body for disputes between states and advisory opinions on international law.