International Court of Justice will have no Russian judge for first time in history

On Thursday, 9 November, Russia’s representative failed to be elected to the International Court of Justice for the first time ever. He lost out to the Romanian representative, former Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu.

Source: Mykola Hnatovskyi, a Ukrainian expert on international law and a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: Kirill Gevorgian and Bogdan Aurescu, the representatives of the Russian Federation and Romania, were nominated from the Eastern Europe region. Aurescu won, receiving 117 votes from members of the General Assembly. According to European Pravda, only 77 General Assembly members voted for the Russian candidate.

The other successful nominees, representing Mexico, the US, Australia and South Africa, received 143, 135, 117 and 113 votes respectively.

Hnatovskyi pointed out that with the election of Aurescu, "for the first time ever, there will be no Soviet/Russian judge" at the UN International Court of Justice in the Hague.

"This is the second time that a permanent member of the Security Council will not be represented at the International Court of Justice (the first was the UK in 2017)."

Bogdan Aurescu headed Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for almost five years – from November 2019 to June 2023 – and before that, for one year from 2014 to 2015.

The International Court of Justice comprises 15 judges, with five new judges elected every three years. Each judge represents a certain regional group of countries and must enlist the support of members of the UN Security Council and General Assembly.

The UN International Court of Justice is considering several complaints brought by Ukraine against Russia related to its aggression, particularly concerning the fact that Russia used the fictional "genocide in the Donbas" to justify its full-scale invasion.

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