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It was a protracted contest involving several rounds of voting to get the required majority. Candidates Paul Kuruk of Ghana and Dr. Olufemi Elias of Nigeria withdrew their candidacies.
Kenyan law professor Phoebe Okowa was elected as a judge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). He emerged victorious from a competitive field of African candidates after a series of tense voting rounds in both the General Assembly and Security Council. The other contestants were from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.
It was a protracted contest involving several rounds of voting to get the required majority. Candidates Paul Kuruk of Ghana and Dr. Olufemi Elias of Nigeria withdrew their candidacies. The final round pitted Okowa against Charles Jalloh of Sierra Leone, with the Kenyan candidate securing 106 votes to Jalloh’s 79 in the General Assembly and a narrow 8-7 victory in the Security Council.
General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock officially declared that “Phoebe Okowa of Kenya has obtained an absolute majority in both organs” and was therefore newly elected. Okowa succeeds Judge Abdulqawi A. Yusuf, who resigned effective September 30, 2025.
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Her term begins immediately and will run through February 5, 2027, completing the remainder of her predecessor’s term on the UN’s principal judicial organ, often called the “World Court.”