Archive August 27, 2025

Julia Sebutinde, the vice president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has been subject to an investigation by the International Commission of Jurists.

The commission, which promotes the rule of law and human rights, claimed Sebutinde’s position on Israel raises questions of judicial integrity. Other critics also exist for Sebutinde, who is one of the 17 judges in the ICJ case involving Israel.

What Sebutinde said, why she received criticism, and more is revealed here:

Julia Sebutinde: Who is she?

Sebutinde is one of the judges hearing the case against Israel in South Africa. In January 2024, the same judges who voted on temporary measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza did the same.

Sebutinde, 71, is a judge from Uganda and has sat in the ICJ since March 2012 for her second term. She joins the ICJ, which is based in The Hague, as the first African woman. In February of this year, she was chosen as the top UN court’s vice president.

During the Ugandan independence movement, Sebutinde was raised by a modest family, according to the Institute for African Women in Law. She attended Gayaza High School, a girls’ boarding school, and Lake Victoria Primary School in Entebbe, Uganda. In 1977, she received her law degree from Makerere University.

Sebutinde received an honorary doctorate in 2009 for her legal accomplishments after receiving a master of law degree with distinction from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1990.

She served as a judge on the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2007 until she joined the ICJ.

What was Sebutinde’s opposing position on Palestine?

South Africa claimed in a lawsuit filed in December 2023 that Israel was staging a genocide in Gaza as it broke out of the occupation of the country on October 7, 2023. Israel’s actions in Palestine were viewed as genocidal because they intended to “bring about the destruction of a significant portion of the Palestinian national, racial, and ethnic group” according to South Africa.

The ICJ rendered a decision regarding a number of interim measures on January 26, 2024. It issued six interim measures, instructing Israel to:

• Take action to stop genocide.
• halt genocide in the media
• Bringing more aid from the humanitarian world to Gaza
• Under the terms of the Genocide Convention, protect and maintain all supporting evidence.
• Allow fact-finding expeditions
• Describe the actions taken before the court.

All the necessary measures were approved by 15 of the 17 judges who voted in favor of the adoption of the emergency measures. Two of the six measures that were to be implemented received a vote from an Israeli judge. The only judge to reject all the measures was Seputinde.

In her dissented opinion, Sebutinde wrote, “In my respectful dissenting opinion, the conflict between the people of Palestine and the State of Israel has largely historically been political.” A court may not resolve a legal dispute.

She added that South Africa failed to demonstrate that Israel’s alleged actions “weren’t motivated by the necessary genocidal intent” and fall under the purview of the Genocide Convention.

Final judgment will still be awaiting the court. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant were both wanted on arrest last year for war crimes, according to the International Criminal Court.

Israel’s actions in Gaza have been referred to as genocide by a number of human rights organizations. In addition to killing more than 62, 000 Palestinians during the nearly 23-month war, Israel has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. &nbsp,

Who and why has demanded an investigation into Sebutinde?

The International Commission of Jurists, which is made up of 60 judges and attorneys in Geneva, requested the investigation in a letter to ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa on Friday. Sebutinde made the remarks on August 10 at the Watoto Church in Kampala, Uganda, referring to her statement that “The Lord is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel.”

According to Principle 2 of the UN’s Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, “the judiciary shall decide matters before them impartially, on the basis of facts and in accordance with the law, without any… improper influences… from any source and for any reason,” the letter continued.

Sebutinde’s statements “inconsistent with these principles,” according to the letter, which was signed by Santiago Canton, the commission’s secretary-general.

Canton urged Iwasawa to launch an investigation into the allegations against Sebutinde and take appropriate legal steps if the allegations were to be confirmed.

Canton requested that Iwasawa forbid Sebutinde from the ICJ case filed by South Africa while an investigation is being conducted.

Uganda’s government took a stand against her dissention.

Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s ambassador to the UN, wrote on X in January last year that “Justice Sebutinde’s decision at the International Court of Justice does not represent the Government of Uganda’s position on the situation in Palestine.”

Sebutinde might be taken out. How?

According to the ICJ statute, members of the organization can’t be fired unless other members have voted in favor of them no longer meeting the requirements.

The ICJ registrar issues a formal notification to the UN secretary-general, leaving the position vacant.

This has never occurred, according to the ICJ website.

The website establishes criteria for its judges, stating that they must be chosen from among those of high moral character, have the necessary credentials to be appointed to the highest judicial positions, or be jurisconsultants with recognized international legal expertise.

A Member of the Court is neither a delegate to any other State’s government nor to any other nation, according to the article’s further adage.

Members of the ICJ must make a solemn declaration that they will exercise their powers impartially and conscienciously before taking on their duties there, according to the ICJ statute.

Who are the case’s judges?

The UN Security Council and the General Assembly both elect 15 judges for nine-year terms.

An Israeli judge and a judge from South Africa joined the bench in the case against Israel. Senior retired judge Dikgang Moseneke from South Africa joined the case from Israel, while former chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, a former Israeli Supreme Court official, joined.

Mariam should be in my mind.

I long for the lovely smile that made her face shine. I want to remember the brave journalist she was, the strong woman, and the friend who everyone referred to as.

I want to keep in mind all the times she tried to capture Gaza’s heartache, pain, sorrow, laughter, and love.

She is remembered as the loving mother of Ghaith, her son. I want to remember her as the daughter who was so close to her parents and the sister who brought happiness to her home.

She is the daughter of a father who gave up her kidney to keep him alive.

With just one kidney inside her body, I used to stare at her while she was out on the field, on the front lines, capturing every moment of what was happening.

I’ll always remember how she would choose to comfort you and assure you that everything will work out, even when she was at her worst when she was already exhausted. It won’t go away.

I can recall her words, but it won’t pass.

In front of Ghaith, her son, who resembles her, I will always remember her. And I hope that he names his daughter Mariam the way she requested in her final letter to him when he grows up and gets married.

At the end of 2023, Israel’s war forced me to flee Gaza with my family. I can’t imagine going back and not seeing Mariam, waiting for her to sit next to me, or checking her out.

A boy’s view of the world

We eventually became friends without much effort. When we were outside in the fields, we frequently met.

If she arrived first, I would stand next to her, and if I arrived first, she would stand up to me. We would be checking each other with our eyes if we were covering something extremely bad or dangerous just to make sure the other was fine.

There are so many vivid images of Mariam outside.

We had moments where we could just sit for a few minutes and talk about our kids between those struggles, coverage, tear gas, bullets, and explosions.

Her entire world was Ghaith. After the war broke out, she had to transfer him to his father in the United Arab Emirates.

When she was so worried about him all the time, I told her that was the right thing to do. I experienced the same experiences as a mother, but at least my children had their father with them at home.

You are supporting him by doing this. You’re keeping him safe, I said to her. Because we as mothers want this most of all.

She only wanted to know that he was safe, that he wasn’t hungry, and that he wasn’t thirsty.

She missed him dearly after sending him, but she was relieved to learn that he was safe and that no bombs were being blown at him.

She told me that he should concentrate on that and consider the day they would meet again when he called her and cried because he missed her.

Because of Ghaith, she held onto that last ounce of hope. She aspired to see him and hold him.

I kept calling my colleagues in Gaza and enquiring whether Mariam was still alive when I first learned about Mariam.

I simply hung up and called a different person to ask the same question when they said no.

I was telling my husband that she was gone, but I was telling him that she was fine and that they had a mistake in including her in a photo with another journalist who had been murdered.

I just feel like she’s going to text me or respond to one of my stories up until now.

I can’t imagine returning to Gaza and not seeing Mariam or all of her friends and coworkers who have gone.

Her final testimony to her son

Mariam must have known that she would leave very soon.

Everyone mentioned her death at the morgue the night before she died.

She told the morgue attendant that she only wanted to be in a shroud when she passed away. He asked her to put her in a plastic body bag.

She even left a note saying “goodbye” to Ghaith.

Because I know her and find it challenging to write such a note, I wanted to translate it for Mariam.

As a mother, friend, and child of hers, I wanted to translate it.

She wrote, “Gaith the heart and soul of your mother, I want you to pray for me, don’t cry over my death.”

In Gaza, I wrote a similar note so that anyone who found it on my phone could read it if I was killed. Mothers in Gaza are compelled to do this.

Anyone can write a will, but these are not wills. We feel unsafe, targeted, and hunted because of this insecurity.

Your soul is shattered by that feeling, living with it every day and every night.

In the two hours before the strike, Mariam had lost a lot of weight and had experienced the pain, grief, and loneliness she felt in that final video that she posted in the elevator.

Even though she always believed that if Ghaith’s dreams were realized, he would travel the world, study abroad, start a business, and not reside in Gaza like she had always imagined, his pain probably increased because of it.

At the conclusion of the process, she also desired that he bring his family there and return to be with her.

I would say to her that Ghaith would never leave her and that he was also in his world. And his mother was so kind to him. He saw her strength and ability, raising him by himself, and giving it her all.

She left him to carry on as he was raised, but she didn’t live to see him grow up.

The meanings that were lost in the photos and videos she captured are left behind. She desired to convey a message through her images. She enjoyed expressing her emotions, thoughts, and opinions with others.

I’ve talked to her so many times but haven’t thought of anything to say to lessen her pain as a result of looking at those pictures and videos. I was so far away.