Professor Milena Sterio presented at a conference at the University of Cambridge on April 28-29.  The conference was organized by the Cambridge Journal of International Law on the topic of Navigating a Multipolar World: Challenges to the Post-WWII Status Quo of International Law. Professor Sterio presented on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and Individual Criminal Responsibility: A Paradox or a Possibility?.  Professor Sterio’s corresponding paper, on the same topic, will be published by the Cambridge Journal of International Law.

Professor Sterio moderated a panel on the topic of “The Right to Equal Participation in the Judiciary and the ICJ: Where are the Women?”  The panel was hosted by the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA), and co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law Women in International Law Interest Group, GQUAL, the Working Group for Gender Partiy for the International Court of Justice, and the Institute for African Women in the Law.  The panel was also the inaugural event for the new ABILA committee on Gender Justice, which Professor Sterio co-founded with Dr. Jessica Corsi. 

The panelists included Dr Jessica Corsi, Senior Law Lecturer at The City Law School at City St George’s, University of London; Prof. Margaret deGuzman, Temple University Beasley School of Law & Judge, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals; Prof. Valerie Oosterveld, Western Law School (Canada) and Former ICC Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity; Prof. J. Jarpa Dawuni, Howard University; Corinne Detmeijer, Vice Chair of the CEDAW Committee to End Discrimination against Women; and Prof. Claudia Martin, American University Washington College of Law.  

The right to equal participation in decision making is a fundamental human right enshrined in international law, including in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic Social, and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In its General Recommendation 40 (GR40) issued in October 2024, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (the CEDAW Committee) made it clear that this right applies to international judiciaries. GR40 notes that despite the fundamental nature of this right, States do not enforce it. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is one such example. In the almost 80 years of the court, only 5.22% of its permanent judges have been women, the rest men, and no data is known regarding other genders. Justice systems should reflect the diversity of the societies they serve, and the ICJ is no exception. Known as the ‘World Court’, the historical and ongoing overrepresentation of one gender on its bench demonstrates its lack of representativeness. This panel discussion focused on the need for gender parity on the ICJ bench from a human rights lens with a special focus on the right to equal participation in decision making and in the international judiciary. Panelists discussed the causes and consequences of women’s absence from the ICJ bench and assessed barriers to ICJ judicial gender parity and how to overcome them. The discussion also addressed gender-based discrimination and gendered barriers to the fulfillment of other human rights that may impede the effective exercise of judicial participation rights for women. One year on from GR40, and one year away from the November 2026 ICJ judicial election, it is time to turn the recommendation into reality.  

The Panel recording is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5yeCXM0GNc

Professor Sterio served as peer reviewer for the Journal of International Dispute Settlement, a prestigious peer reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press.  Professor Sterio reviewed an article on self-determination and the International Court of Justice’s 50-year-old Advisory Opinion in the Western Sahara case.