The 2020 International Court of Justice election were held on 11 and 12 November 2020 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
From the eight candidates, Yuji Iwasawa (Japan), Xue Hanqin (China), Peter Tomka (Slovakia), Julia Sebutinde (Uganda), and Georg Nolte (Germany) have been elected members of the International Court of Justice for a term of office of nine years, as both the Security Council and the General Assembly have agreed on the same candidates.
Judges are required to be independent and impartial; they may not exercise any political or administrative function, and do not act as a representative of their home state.
Nominations of candidates for election to the ICJ are made by a group consisting of the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), designated by that State.
[4] On 5 February 2020, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the United Nations Legal Counsel, on behalf of the Secretary-General, requested nominations from the national groups of States parties to the Statute of the Court to be submitted to the Secretary-General not later than 24 June 2020, in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Statute of the Court.
According to the ICJ Statute, if after the third meeting, one or more seats still remain unfilled, the General Assembly and the Security Council may form a joint conference consisting of six members, three appointed by each organ.
If the joint conference is unanimously agreed, it may submit the name of a person not included in the list of nominations, provided that candidate fulfills the required conditions of eligibility to be a judge on the ICJ.
If the General Assembly and the Security Council ultimately are unable to fill one or more vacant seats, then the judges of the ICJ who have already been elected shall proceed to fill the vacant seats by selection from among those candidates who have obtained votes either in the General Assembly or in the Security Council.
The Security Council, meeting independently from but concurrently with the General Assembly, chose five candidates in a single round of voting on 11 November 2020.