Julia Sebutinde, the only African judge who serves on the International Court of Justice, made headlines in January 2024 for voting in favour of Israel regarding South Africa’s g*nocide case. Now, she is set to assume the presidency of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), though her start date is unclear.
Lebanese Judge Nawaf Salam vacated the seat on 13 January after being appointed Lebanon’s prime minister-designate.
In January 2024, Sebutinde voted against all six provisional measures proposed by the ICJ aimed at safeguarding Palestinians from Israeli military operations in Gaza. As of mid-January 2025, the Lancet medical journal reports a 41 per cent undercounting of the Gaza death toll, which it estimated in early July to have topped 186,000, predominantly women and children.
Sebutinde faced criticism mainly from Africans, including the Ugandan government, which clarified that her views did not reflect its official stance.
A May 2024 investigation by the UK-based The Guardian, Palestinian-run +972 Magazine and Israel-based Local Call revealed that Mossad threatened Fatou Bensouda, another African woman who had served as prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, over her 2021 announcement about investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes.
Might Judge Julia Sebutinde be facing similar pressures?
Sources:
https://x.com/CIJ_ICJ/status/1879229776705245273
https://www.jns.org/with-vacancy-atop-un-high-court-pro-israel-activists-laud-bodys-vice-president/
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/07/1152296