Five judges have been elected to the International Court of Justice in the triennial election held at UN headquarters on November 3, filling the five seats that fall vacant on the 15 member court. Dapo Akande of the United Kingdom, Francois Alabrune of France, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud of Jordan and Rena Lee of Singapore obtained the required absolute majorities in both the General Assembly and the Security Council in the initial voting, and Phoebe Okowa of Kenya completed the slate in a further round.
The fifth seat was the contested one. Sierra Leone withdrew the candidature of Charles Chernor Jalloh and backed Okowa, after which she obtained 183 votes in the General Assembly against 2 for Peru’s Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza, and 13 votes in the Security Council, clearing both thresholds. Candidates must win absolute majorities in both bodies voting independently, which is why the election ran to multiple rounds.
Okowa’s position is distinctive. She first joined the court in November 2025 to fill the vacancy left by Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf’s resignation, becoming the first Kenyan and the first African woman to sit on the bench. Tuesday’s vote converts that partial term into a full nine year mandate. Rena Lee’s election gives Singapore a judge on the court, a first the Straits Times had flagged when noting Singapore fielded a candidate in this cycle.
All five terms begin on February 6, 2027 and run to February 2036. The court they join decides disputes between states and gives advisory opinions requested by UN organs, so the composition settled this week governs the bench for any maritime, resource or use of force litigation filed across the next decade.