New York –  A Nigerian, Chile Eboe-Osuji, was among five new judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sworn in at a ceremony held at the seat of the Court in The Hague.

The other judges were Howard Morrison (UK), Anthony T. Carmona (Trinidad and Tobago), Olga Herrera Carbuccia (Dominican Republic) and Robert Fremr (Czech Republic).

They were elected at the latest session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP) in December, 2011, for  nine-year terms.

Speaking in New York shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, Eboe-Osuji thanked Nigerians for the wonderful support they gave him.

“No one succeeds into international positions such as this without strong support from his or her government.

“And I did receive extremely strong support from the president, the Federal Minister of Justice and the minister of Foreign Affairs and the permanent secretaries and senior functionaries in those ministries.

“I particularly thank our ambassador at the UN in New York, our ambassador to the Netherlands and  our ambassador in Switzerland, as well as their colleagues in Addis Ababa, Stockholm and other parts of the world.

“Without the strong support I received from them and the diplomats in their missions, this would not have been possible. I thank them all,’’ the judge said.

Eboe-Osuji and Morrison Howard of the UK were elected during the final rounds of the ICC election at the UN headquarters in New York.

Eboe-Osuji recorded 102 votes, while Howard recorded 72 votes out of the 117 votes to meet the two-third required majority before a candidate could be adjudged elected as a judge in the ICC.

He had served as Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

Also he worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), where he served as Principal Legal Adviser to the Chambers between 2008 and 2009.

Eboe-Osuji was also a Senior Appeals Counsel at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and a Senior Legal Officer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICTR.

There he worked on the case of Bagosora, Nsengiyumva, Kabiligi and Ntabakuze, and the Semanza case.

He taught International Criminal Law at the University Of Ottawa Faculty Of Law in Ontario, Canada and had also appeared in several civil, constitutional and criminal cases at all levels of court in Canada, as a barrister. (NAN)