Justice Julia Sebutinde of Uganda is set to be appointed president of the International Court of Justice, according to media reports, after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun earlier this week summoned Nawaf Salam to designate him prime minister.

An ICJ statement released on Tuesday announcing Salam’s resignation did not mention Sebutinde, but as the court’s current vice president, she is expected to be promoted to the top spot.

Justice Salam began his role as ICJ president in February 2024 and has served as a judge on the court since 2018.

In his first speech as premier earlier in the week, Salam, referring to Israel, whose cases he until recently oversaw, said he would work to “impose the complete withdrawal of the enemy from the last occupied inch of our land.”

Sebutinde, on the other hand, was the only judge on the 17-member ICJ panel to vote against all six measures adopted by the court last year in a ruling ordering Israel to take action to prevent potential acts of genocide as it fought Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

She was also one of only two judges to oppose the court’s assertion that Palestinians’ claims of war crimes in Gaza may fall under the scope of the Genocide Convention. The other was Israeli Justice Aharon Barak. (Contrary to some reports at the time, the court did not rule it was plausible that genocide was taking place.)

Judge Sebutinde, in her dissent, argued that “South Africa has not demonstrated, even on a prima facie basis, that the acts allegedly committed by Israel and of which the Applicant........

© The Times of Israel