Local judge new ICC Vice-President

Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng from Botswana has been elected First Vice-President of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is a very influential position since the Presidency - consisting of the President and the two Vice-Presidents - plays a key role in providing strategic leadership to the ICC as a whole, as well as being responsible for the proper administration of the Court, with the exception of the Office of the Prosecutor. Judge Monageng was elected to the ICC bench in March 2009 for a term of nine years. Previously, she had served as a High Court judge in Swaziland and The Gambia.

Monageng has broad experience in issues relating to the promotion and protection of human rights, having been a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights between 2003 and 2009 - and was appointed the Commission's chairperson in November 2007. She has also chaired one of the special mechanisms of the Commission, the Follow-up Committee on torture, inhumane, degrading and other treatment. She also served as Deputy Chief Litigation Officer in the United Nations Observer Mission to South Africa in 1994 - and was the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Law Society of Botswana for many years.

Furthermore, Monageng is also a member of many international organisations including the International Association of Women Judges, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law - and was a Board Member of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for three years. (Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa)