By Jim Wurst, UN Wire

UNITED NATIONS -- The first seven judges to the International Criminal Court -- six
women and one man -- were elected yesterday in the first round of voting by the ICC's
Assembly of States Parties.

The second round of balloting to fill the remaining 11 seats began this morning. Two
candidates, who did badly in the first round, dropped out of the race. This means there
are now 34 candidates competing for the 11 posts.

The ICC's first judges are Maureen Harding Clark of Ireland, Fatoumata Diarra of Mali,
Akua Kuenyehia of Ghana, Elizabeth Odio Benito of Costa Rica, Navanethem Pillay of
South Africa, Song San-hyun of South Korea and Sylvia de Figueiredo Steiner of Brazil.
Song was the only man to be elected on the first round.

Pillay is the president of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The president of
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Claude Jorda of France, is also
a candidate but yesterday fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for election.
Ambassador Philippe Kirsch of Canada, who chaired the preparatory meetings of the
ICC in 2001 and 2002, fell one vote short of the two-thirds.

Biographies of the judges and other candidates are available on the ICC Web site.
The voting procedure is complicated. The ballot is designed to ensure that the final
composition of the panel will have a gender balance and that judges come from different
regions to ensure no one region dominates the bench. In addition, candidates are
nominated in one of two categories. Category "A" candidates should have experience in
criminal law and procedures, such as through work as a judge, prosecutor or advocate.
Category "B" candidates must have expertise in international law. A majority of the
judges must be from the "A" list. Five of the new judges are from the Category "A" list.
This first round of voting satisfied the minimum requirements for the election of women
and Africans. No Eastern European was elected and Clark was the only winner from
Western Europe. Asia and Latin America each need one more judge to reach their
minimums.

The nongovernmental Coalition for the ICC welcomed the first results. According to the
convener of the CICC, William Pace, "The regions that voted strategically showed that
they were also willing to vote for the highest qualified candidates. … This international
election is unprecedented in that it has demonstrated that you can have representation
and highly qualified candidates elected."

If the remaining judges are not elected today, a third round of voting will take place this
afternoon.

The ICC entered into force July 1, 2002. War crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide committed by individuals -- not nations -- after that date fall under the
jurisdiction of the court. Disputes between nations are the jurisdiction of the International
Court of Justice.

The ICC will be inaugurated and the judges sworn in at The Hague March 11.