The ICJ is please to announce the appointment of two new Commissioners: Justice John Lawrence O’Meally (Australia) and Justice Fatsah Ouguergouz (Algeria).
The new Commissioners were elected, by existing Commissioners, by a ballot counted on 13 March 2015.
Justice John Lawrence O’Meally (Australia) is a mediator accredited by the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators of Australia, and on the New South Wales (NSW) Bar Association’s list of mediators for cases in the Supreme Court of NSW. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and was admitted to the NSW and Australian Bars in 1964 and then later to the Papua New Guinea Bar and Western Pacific Bar. He has worked as a barrister and judge in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Antigua and Barbados. He has been a Consultant to the Governments of St Lucia on Restructuring the District Court and the Solomon Islands on Restoration of the Legal System. He is a Member of Council of the Australian Section of the ICJ and President of the NSW Branch.
Justice Fatsah Ouguergouz (Algeria) is one of the inaugural judges of the African Court of Human and People’s Rights, first elected in 2006 and then re-elected in 2010 for a six-year term. He graduated in Law from the University of St. Etienne in France and has a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Law in Geneva. He has taught Public International Law at the University of Geneva, has served as a Human Rights Officer in Rwanda for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, worked as Legal Officer at the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations in New York and was Secretary of the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
In addition to the two new members, Professor Sir Nigel Rodley was also re-elected to serve a second term as President of the ICJ.