Professor Milena Sterio organized and participated in a side event at the United Nations 6th Committee during International Law Week, on Friday, October 31.  The event, “The Right to Equal and Inclusive Participation and the International Court of Justice: Where are the Women,” focused on the need for gender parity at the International Court of Justice.  The event was hosted by the Gender Parity at the International Court of Justice Project (Professor Sterio serves on the Steering Committee), and the American Branch of the International Law Association’s Gender Justice in International Law Committee (Professor Sterio co-chairs this Committee, which she also co-founded).  In addition, the event was co-sponsored by the United Nations Permanent Missions of Canada, Mexico, Sweden, and Singapore.  

Since its inception in 1945, there has been only six female judges on the bench of the ICJ.  In the upcoming ICJ judicial elections, out of eleven candidates thus far nominated by states, only three are women.  The side event, which featured remarks by a slate of distinguished panelists, stressed the need for equal and inclusive participation for women on the ICJ’s judicial bench, as a fundamental human right.  Professor Sterio moderated the discussion along with Dr. Jessica Corsi (University College London).  Expert panelists included Karen Ong, Deputy Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations, Prof. Nilufer Oral, International Law Commission, Prof. Jelena Pia-Commella, Member of the Commission of the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Committee, Jelena Crncevic, Special Counsel, Withers Worldwide, and Akhila Radhakrishnan, End Gender Apartheid Campaign.