By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
HAGUE
The International Court of Justice in Hague has named Ugandan judge, Julia Sebutinde their Vice President for a three year term.
Justice Sebutinde was elected on February 6, by her peers at ICJ. She became the first African woman to sit on the world court.
Sebutinde joined the Hague court on 6 February, 2012, from Sierra Leon where she served as the judge of the country’s Special Court between 2005 and 2011.
Her name was recently in limelights and dominated international media following her ruling in the Israel – Gaza Genocide in which she voted against all of the emergency measures ordered of Israel to protect Palestinians during the ICJ preliminary rulings on the Gaza genocide case.
Records at the court indicated that the 17-judge panel at the ICJ voted in favour of six provisional measures that order Israel to protect Palestinians, including punishing and preventing acts of genocide and allowing humanitarian aid into war-battered Gaza – but Judge Sebutinde voted against all of these measures.
This came after South Africa filed a case with the court in December, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people – particularly in Gaza. South Africa and Israel made their cases to the court in public hearings earlier this month.
On October 7, Israel launched war on Gaza and its brutal air and ground operations have killed over 26,000 people in less than four months. South Africa had called in its case for the court to order an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but the judges stopped short of this.
In her dissenting opinion, Sebutinde claimed that South Africa did not show that the acts allegedly committed by Israel were done “with the necessary genocidal intent and that as a result, they are capable of falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention”.
Uganda later distanced Sebutinde’s ruling clarifying that it did not represent the country’s position on the situation in Palestine.
“Justice Sebutinde’s ruling at the International Court of Justice does not represent the Government of Uganda’s position on the situation in Palestine.”
“Uganda’s support for the plight of the Palestinian people has been expressed through Uganda ‘s voting pattern at the United Nations.” said Adonia Ayebare, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN.
Despite slamming her ruling by many Africans on social media, ICJ peers have gone a head to vote justice Sebutinde as their Vice President for a 3yr term.
