Meet the ICC judges who ordered Du30’s arrest; one took on Putin
- Poetic justice? Duterte has a proud record of disparaging women — and now he’s facing the ICC’s three women judges: Iulia Motoc (Romania), Socorro Flores Liera (Mexico) and Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin).
- Motoc’s term in the ICC began on March 11, 2024 and will end on March 10, 2033. Before she joined the court, the 57-year-old international law expert from Romania served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, which is based in France, from 2013 to 2023.
- Liera is a Mexican lawyer whose term began in the ICC on March 11, 2021 and will end March 10, 2030. Before this, she had a distinguished career in Mexico’s foreign service. Among the senior posts she held was as permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2017 to 2021, and positions in other international organizations based in Geneva.
- Gansou, who is from Benin, assumed full-time status in the ICC on June 11, 2018, but her term began on March 11, 2018, and will end March 10, 2027. Most of her work centered on human rights monitoring and protection in African nations.
On orders from the International Criminal Court (ICC), former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested for alleged crimes against humanity on March 11 in connection with the bloody war on drugs he waged for six years.
The 15-page arrest warrant issued by The Hague-based tribunal was signed by the three women who make up the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, namely Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc, Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou and Judge Socorro Flores Liera.
Who are the judges who decided that Duterte must stand trial?
Iulia Antoanella Motoc
Motoc’s term in the ICC began on March 11, 2024 and will end on March 10, 2033. Before she joined the court, the 57-year-old international law expert from Romania served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, which is based in France, from 2013 to 2023.
She earlier served as a judge at the Constitutional Court of Romania from 2010 to 2013. Motoc earned her law degree from the University of Bucharest, and a master’s and doctorate degrees in international law from the Paul Cézanne University Aix-Marseille III in France.
She also had a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bucharest, and served as a senior fellow at the New York University School of Law and the Yale School of Law.
Motoc also taught European and international law at the University of Bucharest. Her research interests include the use of force, theory of international law, human rights and transitional justice.
She also worked as a visiting professor at various European institutions, including the European Institute Florence, University Paris I, the Academy of International Law in The Hague and the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, Italy.
Motoc also served as a UN special rapporteur for the Democratic Republic of Congo, reporting crimes against humanity and war crimes.
She also became vice president of the UN Human Rights Committee, and president of the UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
As judge both at the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Romania, Motoc “dealt with serious and complex cases including corruption and sexual violence, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” according to her profile on the ICC website.
During her stint in the UN human rights organizations, she codrafted the UN report that tackled free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples, as well as the UN Guidelines on Extreme Poverty.
In the ICC, Motoc was named as the new member of the Pre-Trial Chamber I in March last year as the presiding judge, replacing then Presiding Judge Péter Kovács who was transferred to the ICC’s Trial Chamber V.
Among the cases she handled was the situation in the State of Palestine, serving also as a presiding judge for that case, concerning Israel’s actions on Gaza.
Among her current cases is the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, particularly the alleged crimes against humanity committed in the South American country.
Reine Alapini-Gansou
Gansou, who is from Benin, assumed full-time status in the ICC on June 11, 2018, but her term began on March 11, 2018, and will end March 10, 2027. Most of her work centered on human rights monitoring and protection in African nations.
Prior to joining the ICC, Gansou spent 12 years working to advance human rights in Africa, particularly at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights which she chaired from 2009 to 2012. She was a special rapporteur on human rights defenders in the continent, from 2005 to 2009 and from 2012 to 2017.
“She has been a member of several United Nations commissions of inquiries on human rights violations, and chaired the joint working group on special procedures of the United Nations and the African Commission on human and people’s rights,” read her ICC website profile.
Aside from sitting as judge, she is the second vice president of the ICC.
Gansou was earlier appointed judge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2011. Gansou also served as a consultant to the West Africa and Central Office of the World Health Organization, working mainly on the draft of a bill on the protection of human rights for the mentally ill.
She also taught at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, and earned a joint postgraduate degree from the universities in Maastricht in the Netherlands, Lomé in Togo and in Bhutan.
Gansou also has a university degree in common law from the University of Lyon 3 in France, and a master’s degree in business law and judicial careers from the National University of Benin.
She also has diplomas in international human rights law from the African Institute of Human Rights in Banjul, Gambia; René Cassin Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France; and the International Development Law Organization in Rome.
At the ICC, Gansou had handled dozens of cases, among them concerning Palestine and Venezuela.
But most prominent among them so far was the case against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the illegal deportation of children from invaded Ukraine.
She was among the ICC judges who signed the warrant issued against Putin in March 2023. For this, a local court in Moscow ordered her “arrest in absentia’’ for issuing the “knowingly illegal” warrant against the Russian leader.
Socorro Flores Liera
Liera is a Mexican lawyer whose term began in the ICC on March 11, 2021 and will end March 10, 2030.
Before this, she had a distinguished career in Mexico’s foreign service. Among the senior posts she held was as permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2017 to 2021, and positions in other international organizations based in Geneva.
Liera began her career in foreign service at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations, where she was given charge of her country’s delegation to the 1998 negotiations on the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.
Mexico remains one of the “main promoters” of the ICC, according to the government website.
At the ministry, Liera served as undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, director general for global issues, director general for American Regional Organizations, and director of International Law in the Office of the Legal Counsel.
The Mexican government hailed her election as an ICC judge, citing her extensive experience in international criminal law.
Liera was Mexico’s advocate-counselor in the proceedings at the International Court of Justice on the Avena case, a suit filed by Mexico against the United States in 2003. It accused Washington of violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by jailing and sending 54 Mexican nationals to death row without allowing them to secure legal representation from their consulate.
Liera studied law at the Universidad Iberoamericana and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, specializing in public international law.
