New York (VNA) - The United Nations GeneralAssembly and the Security Council on November 12 elected five judges to serveat the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a term of nine-year.
The five new judgesare Yuji Iwasawa from Japan, Georg Nolte from Germany, Xue Hanqin from China, PeterTomka from Slovakia and Julia Sebutinde from Uganda.
They are thereforeduly elected members of the International Court of Justice to serve for anine-year term commencing February 6, 2021.
The International Court of Justice holds the responsibilityin rectifying the legal disputes between UN member states and is composedof 15 judges elected to nine-year terms by a vote held independently at the UNSecurity Council and the UN General Assembly.
The ICJ is one of the UN's six principal organs and itselection is held every three years for five seats with no bar onconsecutive terms. During this year's election, eight candidates, four of whichare current ICJ members, were contesting the five positions. Meanwhile, Germanjurist Nolte will serve his first term at the ICJ.
Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission tothe UN, casted his vote at the UN Security Council, while Ambassador Pham HaiAnh, deputy head of the mission, voted at the UN General Assembly. This is thesecond time that Vietnam has elected ICJ judges as a non-permanent member ofthe UN Security Council and member of the UN. The first time was in 2008./.