UN elects five judges to International Court of Justice as court faces record caseload
The United Nations has elected five judges to the World Court for nine-year terms, including Singapore’s Rena Lee and Kenya’s Phoebe Okowa, as 24 contentious cases crowd its docket.
The United Nations has elected five new judges to the International Court of Justice, the world's highest court, for nine-year terms, as the court grapples with a record caseload that includes South Africa's genocide case against Israel over its war on Gaza.
The election was held on Tuesday at UN headquarters in New York, with candidates needing an absolute majority in both the General Assembly and the Security Council to win. Several rounds of voting were required to fill the fifth and final seat, reflecting the intensity of the contest.
The five judges elected were Dapo Akande of the United Kingdom, Francois Alabrune of France, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud of Jordan, Rena Lee of Singapore and Phoebe Okowa of Kenya. Their terms are set to begin on 6 February 2027, and they will join the court's 15-member bench.
The result carries particular significance for Asia and Africa. Rena Lee is the first Singaporean elected to the court, and only the second candidate from South-East Asia to win a seat, while Okowa's election gives Kenya a voice on a bench that decides some of the most sensitive disputes in international law.
The election comes at a moment of extraordinary pressure on the court. Its president, Yuji Iwasawa, told the General Assembly on 29 October that 24 contentious cases are pending before the court, covering disputes over territory, human rights and the interpretation of international treaties — a workload without precedent in its history.
Among those cases is South Africa's accusation that Israel violated the Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza, a case that has drawn interventions from dozens of states and placed the court at the centre of one of the most divisive conflicts of the decade.
Separately, the court announced on Tuesday that it will deliver its judgment on 19 November in The Gambia's case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya minority — only the third genocide judgment in the court's history.
The International Court of Justice, based at the Peace Palace in The Hague, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on questions referred to it by UN bodies, and its judgments are binding on the parties that appear before it.
Judges are elected for nine-year terms, with five seats coming up for renewal every three years, a staggered system designed to preserve continuity while refreshing the bench. Candidates must command support in both the 193-member General Assembly and the 15-member Security Council, a dual threshold that makes elections as much diplomatic contests as legal ones.
For the five incoming judges, the work will begin immediately. Beyond the Gaza and Rohingya cases, the court's docket includes territorial disputes, climate-related proceedings and questions of state responsibility that will test the bench's authority in the years ahead.
The election is also a reminder of the court's growing centrality. As more states turn to The Hague to resolve disputes they cannot settle bilaterally, the composition of its bench — and the balance of legal traditions it represents — matters more than ever. Tuesday's vote has now set that balance for the next nine years.
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