Somali judge is elected president of the International Court of Justice

President of the Internal Court of Justice Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf

NAIROBI—The International Criminal Justice has a new president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf from the horn of Africa.

Born in Eyl, Somalia, 12 September 1948, Abdulhaq came from a humble background to rise to this position.

He came to the Somali capital Mogadishu at a very young age where he was schooled. After clearing high school, Abdulhaq wanted to join the faculty of medicine at the University of Mogadishu, but he could not.

“The university did not have the Fuculty of Medicine. So I was forced to take Law because that was the only available fuculty,” he said at Hague where he was invited to give a talk on peace and justice.

In a press statement on Tuesday, the the ICJ congratulated the new president for his new role as the president and to be deputised by Juge Xue Hanqin from China as the vice president.

The jugdes are Hisaha (Japan), Peter Tomka (Slovakia), Ronny Abraham (France),  Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco),  Antonia (Brazil), Joan Donoghue (United States of America), Giorgia Gaja (Italy),  Julia Sebutinde (Uganda) , Dalveer Bhandari (India), Patrick Lipton Robinson (Jamaica), James Richard Crawford (Australia), Krill Gevorgian (Russian Federation) and Nawaf Salaf (Lebanon).

Abdulqawi was a member of the Court since 6 February 2009 ; Vice-President of the Court from 6 February 2015 to 6 February 2018. He was re-elected as from 6 February 2018.

Education Background

Abdulqawi graduated from the Faculty of Law, Somali National University  in 1973.  He later earned certificate from centre for Studies and Research in International Law, Hague Academy of International Law 1974.
Between 1976 to 1977 he studied for post-graduate studies in International Law and Relations, University of Florence, Italy.

He then joined Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva in 1980.

In the early 80’s, Abdulqawi was a lecturer at several Somali law colleges before he went to Geneva, Switzerland to as an assistant professor at the Université de Genève.