Replies

The appeasers would rather believe the Butcher of Bagdad than our own fine administration. That tells us everything we need to know about them and now they are irrelevant as a result of their blatant anti-Americanism. President Bush is doing what he feels is best for the nation, which is more than can be said for the Democrats who are twirling in the wind, trying to find an issue they can grab hold of to make themselves important again.

Mon, Mar 10 2003 7:02 AM AEDT

International Criminal Court elects 18 judges

The world's first permanent war crimes court will take a big step forward on Tuesday with the inauguration of 18 judges, seven women and 11 men from all over the world.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first international court to appoint such a large percentage of women as judges.

Among the new magistrates of the ICC are seven Europeans, three Africans, three judges from Latin America, two Asians, a North American, a magistrate from the Caribbean and a judge from the Pacific Islands.

Several judges on the ICC's bench have already served at one of the two ad hoc war crimes tribunals created by the United Nations.

The French magistrate Claude Jorda was the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), while South Africa's Navanethem Pillay presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Fatouma Diarra from Mali and Irish Maureen Clark both served as judges at the ICTY in The Hague.

The seven female judges are: Maureen Clark (Ireland), Elizabeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica), Fatoumata Diarra (Mali), Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana), Navanethem Pillay (South Africa), Sylvia Steiner (Brazil) and Anita Usacka (Latvia).

The 11 male magistrates are: Rene Blattman (Bolivia), Adrian Fulford (Britain), Karl T Hudson-Phillips (Trinidad and Tobago), Claude Jorda (France), Hans-Peter Kaul (Germany),
Philippe Kirsch (Canada), Erkki Kourula (Finland), Georghios Pikis (Cyprus), Mauro Politi (Italy), Tuiloma Neroni Slade (Samoa) and Sang-Hyun Song (South Korea).