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| Next ICC Prosecutor, Bensouda |
Gambian-born
Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bom Bensouda
has been named among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time
Magazine of the United States.
The
appointment of Mrs Bensouda, who has been Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s deputy throughout
his tenure, was unanimously approved at a meeting of the legislative body of
the ICC, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), in New York in December last
year.
Mrs
Bensouda, a former senior legal adviser at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, which is trying key figures responsible for the 1994 genocide in
the Central African state, got the job ahead of three other short-listed
candidates.
Expected
to take office as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on
June 16, Fatou who will be serving as the court’s second prosecutor and the
first African woman to assume the top job at an international tribunal, faces
daunting challenges in advancing the court’s significant, but still fragile,
progress.
“Her
mission is to prosecute those responsible for the most serious crimes;
genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanitywhen domestic courts and prosecutors fail.
Among
those accused by the court are Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif and Lord’s Resistance
Army leader Joseph Kony,” the Time said in its website.
“Bensouda,
51, brings many years of experience to the job, as a prosecutor in Gambia, on
the international tribunal prosecuting Rwanda’s genocidaires and as deputy ICC
prosecutor for eight years. Thoughtful, soft-spoken, yet determined and
forceful, Bensouda has been a leading voice pressing governments to support the
quest for justice, particularly in Africa,” it added.
Born
on 31 January 1961, Fatou received a bachelor-in-law degree from OAU University
in Nigeria and a barrister in-law degree from the Nigeria Law School.
In
addition, she holds a master’s degree in International Maritime Law and the Law
of the Sea. This makes her the first international maritime law expert of The
Gambia.
Bensouda
was elected Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court by the
Assembly of States Parties on 8th September 2004 and since then has headed and
overseen the Prosecution Division ofthe
Office of the Prosecutor.
Prior
to her election, Bensouda served as Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal
Advisory Unit at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
In
2009, she received the International Jurists Award for her contributions to
national and international criminal law.
Before
joining the ICTR, she was the General Manager of a leading commercial bank in
the country.
Between
1987 and 2000, she was successively Senior State Counsel, Principal State Counsel,
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary
of the Republic of The Gambia, then Attorney General and Minister of Justice,
in which capacity she served as Chief Legal Advisor to President Yahya Jammeh
and his Cabinet.
Mrs
Bensouda also took part in negotiations on the treaty of the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Parliament and the ECOWAS
Tribunal.
She
has been a delegate at United Nations’ conferences on crime prevention, the Organization
of African Unity’s Ministerial Meetings on Human Rights, and the delegate of
The Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the International
Criminal Court. - The Point
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