Lebanese Judge Elected as President of International Court of Justice
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Lebanese judge was elected as the new president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and will now oversee a genocide case brought against the Zionist regime of Israel over its military atrocities in Gaza.
Judge Nawaf Salam was appointed to lead the ICJ for a term of three years, the global body said in a press release on Tuesday, noting he has been a member of the court since 2018 and previously served as Beirut’s envoy to the United Nations.
“My election as President of the International Court of Justice is a major responsibility in achieving international justice and upholding international law,” Salam said in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter).
The ICJ has also elected Judge Julia Sebutinde from Uganda for a three-year term as vice president.
A former judge at the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2005 to 2011, Sebutinde has been an ICJ judge since February 2012.
Last month, Sebutinde was the only judge on the 17-member ICJ panel to vote against all six measures adopted in a ruling ordering Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide by its forces in Gaza.
Sebutinde will serve alongside Lebanon’s Judge Nawaf Salam who was elected as president.
Salam was previously Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN in New York before becoming an ICJ judge in February 2018.
He was elected president on Tuesday as five judges began new terms on the 15-member court in The Hague.
With his election to the top post at the ICJ, Salam will now preside over South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, launched last December over Israel’s military aggression in Gaza had violated international law.
In its submission to the court, Pretoria argued the operation had “specific intent ... to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” and likened Israel’s policies to its own history with apartheid.
While the ICJ ruled on January 26 that Israel must take all precautions to prevent genocide and destruction in the Palestinian territories, South Africa has argued that it is ignoring the order, citing hundreds of civilian casualties in Gaza in the weeks since.
More than 27,500 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave since Israel’s aggression commenced last October, with hundreds of thousands more displaced, according to local health officials.
