General Assembly, Security Council fill final vacancy on ‘World Court’
20 November 2017 – The General Assembly and the Security Council today elected the fifth judge to the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) concluding the 2017 elections to the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
Dalveer Bhandari, of India, received the absolute majority of votes in elections – conducted independently, but
concurrently – at the Security Council and the General Assembly.
He remained the sole candidate for the position after the United Kingdom withdrew the nomination of Christopher
Greenwood.
Mr. Bhandari joins Ronny Abraham of France, Chaloka Beyani (Zambia), Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil), Nawaf Salam (Lebanon), and
Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (Somalia) as the five judges who will serve along with ten other judges at the ICJ.
Their nine-year terms begin 6 February 2018.
The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected by an absolute majority in both the General Assembly and Security
Council. Five seats come up for election every three years. There is no bar on consecutive terms.
Established in 1945, and based in The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICJ – informally known as the ‘World Court’ –
settles legal disputes between States and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by
other authorized UN organs.
The election of the first members of the World Court took place on 6 February 1946, at the first session of the UN
General Assembly and Security Council.