Following the solemn undertaking of six newly elected judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 10 March 2021 and the Presidency’s electionon 11 March 2021, the Presidency of the Court has assigned the judges to the three judicial divisions. The Presidency also recomposed a number of Chambers where necessary, dissolved Pre-Trial Chamber III as well as Trial Chambers I, III, VI and VII and assigned the respective situations and cases currently before the Court to the remaining Chambers. The Presidency also decided that several cases do not currently require assignment to a trial chamber. The assignments as well as the re-composition of Chambers will be effective immediately.
The Appeals Division will be constituted as follows: Judges Piotr Hofmański, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, Solomy Balungi Bossa and Gocha Lordkipanidze.
The Trial Division will be constituted as follows: Judges Bertram Schmitt, Chang‑ho Chung, Kimberly Prost, Joanna Korner, Judge Miatta Maria Samba and Judge Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor.
The Pre-Trial Division will be constituted as follows: Judges Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, Péter Kovács, Tomoko Akane, Reine Alapini-Gansou, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, María del Socorro Flores Liera and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Gordinez.
The situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Libya; the Republic of Mali; Georgia; the Gabonese Republic; Registered Vessels of Comoros, Greece and Cambodia; Palestine; the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; the Plurinational State of Bolivia; the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela I and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela II will be assigned to Pre-Trial Chamber I, to be composed of Judges Péter Kovács, Reine Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera.
The situations in Central African Republic I; Central African Republic II; Republic of Uganda; Darfur, Republic of the Sudan; Republic of Kenya; Republic of Côte d’Ivoire; Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; and Republic of Burundi will be assigned to Pre-Trial Chamber II, to be composed of Judges Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, Tomoko Akane and Rosario Salvatore Aitala.
In addition, the Trial Chambers will be composed as follows:
Trial Chamber II
- The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga
- The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
- The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda
- Judge Péter Kovács
- Judge Chang-ho Chung
- Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera
Trial Chamber IV
- The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain
- Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou
- Judge Kimberly Prost
- Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera
Trial Chamber V
- The Prosecutor v. Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona
- Judge Bertram Schmitt, Presiding
- Judge Péter Kovács
- Judge Chang-ho Chung
Trial Chamber VIII
- The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al-Faqi Al Mahdi
- Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua
- Judge Bertram Schmitt
- Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera
Trial Chamber IX
- The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen
- Judge Bertram Schmitt, Presiding
- Judge Péter Kovács
- Judge Raul C. Pangalangan
Trial Chamber X
- The Prosecutor v. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud
- Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, Presiding
- Judge Tomoko Akane
- Judge Kimberly Prost
Each Division will elect a President of the respective Division from amongst its members and each newly composed Pre-Trial and Trial Chamber will elect a Presiding Judge. The Appeals Chamber decides on a Presiding Judge for each appeal.
According to article 39(1) of the Rome Statute, the assignment of judges to Divisions by the Presidency is based on the nature of the functions be performed by each Division and the qualifications and experience of the elected judges, so that each division contains an appropriate combination of expertise in criminal law and procedure and in international law. The judges are assigned for three years, and thereafter until the completion of any case. The judges assigned to the Appeals Division serve exclusively in the Appeals division for their entire term.
In view of the above assignments and re-composition of Chambers, the Presidency has noted the need for both the Appeals Chamber and Pre-Trial Chamber I to be operational. Accordingly, consistently with the requirements of article 35(3) of the Rome Statute, the assignment and re-composition makes it essential that Judges Gocha Lordkipanidze and María del Socorro Flores Liera be called to full-time service imminently, on the basis of workload. These two judges are anticipated to assume full-time service shortly after the Easter judicial recess.
