An ordinary election for six judges of the International Criminal Court was held during the resumption of the 4th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in New York on 26 January 2006.^[1]

Background

The judges elected at this election were to take office on 11 March 2006. All six judges elected for a three-year term in 2003 were eligible for re-election, all of them ran.

The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:

• (i) The representation of the principal legal systems of the world;
• (ii) Equitable geographical representation; and
• (iii) A fair representation of female and male judges."

Furthermore, article 36(3)(b) and 36(5) provide for two lists:

• List A contains those judges that "[h]ave established competence in criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in other similar capacity, in criminal proceedings";
• List B contains those who "[h]ave established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court".

Each candidate must belong to exactly one list.

Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.^[2]

Nomination process

Following these rules, the nomination period of judges for the 2006 election lasted from 18 July to 20 November 2005. The following persons were nominated:^[3]

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender
Károly Bard	Hungary	List B	Eastern European States	Male
Haridiata Dakoure	Burkina Faso	List A	African States	Female
Hans-Peter Kaul	Germany	List B	Western European and Other States	Male
Erkki Kourula	Finland	List B	Western European and Other States	Male
Akua Kuenyehia	Ghana	List B	African States	Female
Tuiloma Neroni Slade	Samoa	List A	Asian States	Male
Sang-hyun Song	South Korea	List A	Asian States	Male
Cheikh Tidiane Thiam	Senegal	List B	African States	Male
Ekaterina Trendafilova	Bulgaria	List A	Eastern European States	Female
Anita Ušacka	Latvia	List B	Eastern European States	Female

The candidature of Effie Owuor of Kenya was withdrawn.^[4]

Minimum voting requirements

Minimum voting requirements governed part of the election. This was to ensure that article 36(8)(a) cited above is fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements existed; they were to be adjusted once the election was underway.

Regarding the List A or B requirement, there was a minimum voting requirement (not to be waived at any time) of one judge from List A and one judge from List B.^[5]

Regarding the regional criteria, there were minimum voting requirements for one African, one Asian and two Eastern European judges.

Regarding the gender criteria, there was a minimum voting requirement for one female judge.

The regional and gender criteria could have been adjusted even before the election depending on the number of candidates. Paragraph 20(b) of the ASP resolution that governed the elections states that if there are less than double the number of candidates required for each region, the minimum voting requirement shall be a (rounded-up) half of the number of candidates; except when there is only one candidate which results in no voting requirement. Furthermore, if the number of candidates of one gender is less than ten, then the minimum voting requirement shall not exceed a certain number depending on the number of candidates.

The regional and gender criteria could have been dropped either if they were not (jointly) possible any more, or if after four ballots not all seats were filled.

The voting requirements were as follows:

Ballots

The only ballot took place on 26 January 2006.

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender	Ballot
Number of States Parties voting					100
Two-thirds majority					67
Ekaterina Trendafilova	Bulgaria	List A	Eastern European States	Female	82
Anita Ušacka	Latvia	List B	Eastern European States	Female	77
Erkki Kourula	Finland	List B	Western European and Other States	Male	73
Akua Kuenyehia	Ghana	List B	African States	Female	72
Sang-hyun Song	South Korea	List A	Asian States	Male	70
Hans-Peter Kaul	Germany	List B	Western European and Other States	Male	67
Tuiloma Neroni Slade	Samoa	List A	Asian States	Male	50
Károly Bard	Hungary	List B	Eastern European States	Male	36
Cheikh Tidiane Thiam	Senegal	List B	African States	Male	29
Haridiata Dakoure	Burkina Faso	List A	African States	Female	16

With the exception of Judge Slade (who was replaced by Ekaterina Trendafilova) all re-eligible judges were in fact re-elected.