Sebutinde Set to Assume ICJ Presidency

Last February, Judge Julia Sebutinde riled the international community when she alone of 17 judges ruled against all appeals by South Africa that had accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and demanded the ICJ orders a stop to the war
Ugandan judge Julia Sebutinde is set to assume the presidency of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a major shift from her current vice-presidency role.
The promotion is another milestone in the groundbreaking career of the Ugandan jurist, whose February 2024 dissenting opinion was widely considered as being in defense of Israel against South Africa's genocide allegations.
It had led to widespread condemnation of Uganda and the lady justice, with the government promptly throwing her under the bus for good measure.
The lady justice will take the helm from current President Nawaf Salam, who has been appointed Prime Minister of his native Lebanon by new President Joseph Aoun.
Born in February 1954 in Kampala, Sebutinde's journey to The Hague began with her 1996 appointment to Uganda's Supreme Court, where she distinguished herself by leading three pivotal anti-corruption investigations in her homeland.
Among the cases was the 'Sebutinde Commission,' which exposed corruption in the Uganda Police. Many senior police officers can still hear her shrill voice as she barked at suspects, "Today I'm going to have you for lunch and supper!"
She also led the probe into the UPDF purchase of junk choppers, for which President Museveni's brother, Gen. Salim Saleh, later apologized for his wrongdoing.
The judge's international prominence grew with her 2005 appointment to the Special Court for Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal, where she played a crucial role in the landmark trial of Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Her appointment to the ICJ in February 2012 broke new ground as she became the first woman from Africa to serve on the court.
Sebutinde had also pinned her independent opinion when she voted against Uganda when the ICJ found the UPDF guilty of working with rebels in the 1998–2003 war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The transition in leadership comes at a crucial juncture, with Israel scheduled to present its defense brief against South Africa's case in July, according to media reports.
The UN will now select a new judge to represent the Asia region on the court after Salam's departure.
The court's statutory framework requires the president—elected every three years through a panel member vote—to oversee the institution's administrative affairs and chair its panels, wielding a decisive vote in cases of judicial deadlock.
Dissenting Opinion
In December 2023, South Africa dragged Israel to the ICJ, alleging it was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The case came up for ruling in February 2024, with South Africa also seeking an order for Israel to stop its military offensive in Rafah.
However, Justice Sebutinde cracked a seismic divide when she, alone among 17 judges, voted against all six provisional measures South Africa had filed.
"South Africa has not demonstrated, even on a prima facie basis, that the acts allegedly committed by Israel and of which the applicant complains were committed with the necessary genocidal intent, and that as a result, they are capable of falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention," Justice Sebutinde said in her dissenting opinion.
She dismissed South Africa's requests for temporary injunctions to halt the Gaza war, asserting that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is fundamentally political rather than legal in both its nature and historical context, and therefore falls outside the court's purview.
Her dissenting opinion resonated in international legal circles but vexed the majority of the global population, particularly on the continent, where Africans could not understand how their fellow African had "sided" with Israel against Palestine.
Sebutinde, they said, had betrayed the conscience of Africa on the Palestinian question.
The words of their icon, Nelson Mandela, rang out loud: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."
That Israeli judge Aharon Barak had voted in favor of at least two of the six demands made by South Africa, yet Sebutinde had found cause to dissent on all, made things even worse.
The Uganda government distanced itself from the dissension, with Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, saying Justice Sebutinde's ruling did not represent Uganda's position on the situation in Palestine.
But now she is at the very helm of the ICJ itself, and the war in Gaza has worsened since her dissenting opinion.
The July defense brief will not come at a more interesting time for the ICJ and Lady Justice Julia Sebutinde.