HAGUE– The judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) sitting at Hague in the Netherlands, on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 elected Justice Julia Sebutinde from Uganda as the Vice President of this court for a term of three years.
Her Excellence Julia Sebutinde, ICJ Vice President (Courtesy photo)
“Vice-President Ssebutinde has been a Member of the Court since 6 February 2012. Before joining the Court, Vice-President Ssebutinde was a judge at the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2005 to 2011.” Reads part of the communication from the court
Justice Julia Ssebutinde has been popular in both local and international news following her dissenting opinion,
In a dispute before the court between the State of Israel and Palestine where she noted that the matter is a political one, not a legal dispute susceptible to judicial settlement.
Although the judge is entitled to her opinion as well as being independent as a judge, this didn’t go well into many people’s ears and minds thinking that this decision was Uganda’s stand.
However, the government later on came up with a clarification indicating that this was a personal decision of the judge because its her right but not the country’s position.
Biography
Lady Justice Julia Sebutinde was born on 28th February 1954.
She is married to John Bagunywa Sebutinde, with whom they have two children.
Education
She attended the Lake Victoria Primary School in Entebbe in the 1960s before joining Gayaza High School and later King’s College Budo.
She later joined Makerere University to study law. In 1977, she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1977. She obtained the Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center in Kampala in 1978.
In 1990, she enrolled at the University of Edinburgh for her Master of Laws, graduating in 1991. In 2009, in recognition of her body of work and contribution to international justice, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Edinburgh.
Work
Sebutinde first worked in the Ministry of Justice in the Government of Uganda from 1978 until 1990. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1991, she worked in the Ministry of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom.
She later joined the Ministry of Justice in the Republic of Namibia, which had just attained Independence at that time.
In 1996, she was appointed Judge of the High Court of Uganda. In that capacity, she presided over three commissions of inquiry in several government departments.
She is currently serving her second term on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) following her re-election on 12 November 2020
She also is the chancellor of Muteesa 1 Royal University, a university owned by the Buganda kingdom.
She has been a judge on the court since March 2012. She is the first African woman to sit on the ICJ.
Before being elected to the ICJ, Sebutinde was a judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She was appointed to that position in 2007.
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