UN top court to hold election for 5 seats; Singapore fields candidate for first time

The United Nations’ highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will hold its election on Nov 3 to fill five of its seats.

This year’s contest consists of 10 candidates from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, with Singapore fielding a candidate for the first time.

Ambassador for International Law Rena Lee, 57, is Singapore’s candidate for the ICJ’s 15-member bench.

An international law practitioner, government legal adviser and diplomat, Lee has experience in areas including the law of the sea, climate and environmental law, international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Here is what to know about the ICJ and its election:

What is the ICJ?

Known as the world court, the ICJ in the Hague, Netherlands, plays a critical role in helping states resolve disputes through international law.

It was established by the founding charter of the United Nations in 1945 as the global body’s principal judicial organ, and marks the 80th anniversary of its inaugural sitting this year.

The court was set up mainly to provide nations with a legal way to resolve disputes, instead of resorting to war or violence. Over the years, it has heard cases on sovereignty, maritime and territorial boundaries as well as human rights violations, among other issues, from across the globe.

The UN’s 193 member states, and other states which accept the ICJ’s jurisdiction under specific conditions, can bring cases to the court. Besides adjudicating legal disputes, the court also issues advisory opinions on legal questions submitted by other UN organs and specialised agencies.

Singapore has been involved in one case before the court, in a territorial dispute with Malaysia over Pedra Branca. Both countries mutually agreed to bring the case to the ICJ.

In 2008, the court awarded sovereignty of Pedra Branca to Singapore and Middle Rocks to Malaysia. It also ruled that sovereignty over South Ledge belongs to whoever owns the territorial waters it sits in.

What are some of its recent rulings?

The court has addressed some of the most pressing issues of the day in its rulings.

In a landmark decision in July 2025, it declared that governments are responsible under international law for the harms inflicted by their carbon emissions on the planet and vulnerable nations.

In the unanimous opinion, the court affirmed that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of fundamental rights such as life, health, food, water and adequate housing.

As such, international human rights law applies to climate matters, and states have a legal duty to prevent climate catastrophe and transboundary environmental harm that could impinge on these foundational rights.

The court also ruled that this duty is not contingent on a country’s ratification or membership of formal treaties such as the Paris Agreement. The advisory has been held up as a game changer for climate justice and accountability.

In the same year, the court ordered Israel to lift its restrictions and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The court found that Israel had a duty not to impede the supply of aid by UN organisations. 

This followed an earlier advisory in 2024 in which the court had asked Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories as rapidly as possible.

The non-binding opinion was provided in response to a request from the UN General Assembly in 2022 on Israeli practices affecting Palestinian human rights in those territories. The request preceded the current Gaza conflict.

How are the judges elected?

The ICJ holds an election every three years to fill five seats on its 15-judge panel. Judges are elected in secret ballots by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

Voting is conducted separately in the General Assembly and Security Council, and takes place simultaneously.

To be elected, a candidate must obtain at least an absolute majority of 97 votes in the General Assembly and eight votes in the Security Council.

Once five names have received the required majority in both the General Assembly and the Security Council, the lists are compared, and only candidates who have received the majority in both organs will be considered elected.

Voting continues until both lists have the same five names, and the process may require several rounds before all five seats are filled.

In the past, voting has taken anywhere from a single day to more than a week, with the 2017 election one of the longest and most heavily contested, going into 11 rounds of simultaneous voting over 11 days.

The elected judges in this election will serve a nine-year term from 2027 to 2036.

Who is contesting this election?

The contest this time around features 10 candidates who come from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Candidates are nominated by their countries’ “national groups”, made up of four people who are senior jurists or legal experts.

Each national group can nominate up to four candidates. These include candidates from other countries, with such nominations referred to as co-nominations.

While co-nominations do not guarantee votes in the election, they are seen as an indication of support for candidates.

Singapore announced Ambassador for International Law Rena Lee’s candidacy in 2024. She has received 33 nominations so far.

The other candidates are Dapo Akande, from the United Kingdom, with 43 nominations; Francois Alabrune, France, 40 nominations; Phoebe N. Okawa, Kenya, 26 nominations; Jin-Hyun Paik, Republic of Korea, 21 nominations; Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud, Jordan, 15 nominations; Charles Chernor Jalloh, Sierra Leone, 13 nominations; Marcelo Vazquez-Bermudez, Ecuador, 10 nominations; Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza, Peru, two nominations; and Taoheed Olufemi Elias, Nigeria, two nominations.

Why is this an election worth watching?

The election is not a foregone conclusion, no matter how many nominations a candidate has secured. While ICJ statutes do not mandate formal regional quotas, the court’s 15 seats have by informal multilateral convention historically matched the composition of the Security Council.

This has meant five seats for the Western Europe and Others Group; three seats each for the African Group and the Asia-Pacific Group, and two seats each for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States and for the Eastern European Group.

This arrangement means that countries are incentivised to preserve the regional representation by voting in their bloc’s interests.

In 2017, the conventional allocation was broken when the candidate from India prevailed over the candidate from the United Kingdom after several rounds of voting.

The loss of the UK’s seat also upended the tradition where the five permanent members of the Security Council each had one judge on the ICJ’s bench.

The Nov 3 election will therefore be closely watched to see if the new distribution becomes normalised, or if the ICJ bench’s historic allocation is restored.

If elected, Lee will be the first female ICJ judge from South-east Asia and from small states, Minister for Law Edwin Tong said in a speech at the UN on Oct 29.

The last time a candidate from this region was elected to the ICJ was more than five decades ago, when Judge Cesar Bengzon from the Philippines was on the bench.

Lee was president of the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and successfully concluded the negotiations for the high seas treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is also known as the BBNJ agreement.

She has also previously held stints at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Ministry of Defence, and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, where she was chief executive, across more than three decades working for the public service.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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