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and International Courts

African Women

Click below to read our background paper:

African Women Judges on International Courts: Symbolic or Substantive Gains?

Akua Kuenyehia

International Criminal Court (ICC)

GHANA

Akua Kuenyehia is an eminent Ghanaian lawyer, academic, and human rights advocate whose impact on legal practice and education is evident at both the national and international levels. She was born in Akropong, Ghana, and attended the prestigious Achimota Secondary School in Accra. She attended the University of Ghana where she graduated with a Bachelor of Law degree (LLB, Second Class Upper Division) at the Faculty of Law in 1969. In 1970, she obtained a professional diploma and was subsequently admitted to the Ghana Bar in 1971. She then proceeded to Somerville College, Oxford University where she completed a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1972. In 1972, Kuenyehia began her academic life as a lecturer at the Faculty of Law in the University of Ghana— an appointment that made her Ghana’s first woman law professor. In that same year, she began a lectureship position at the Ghana Workers College.

At the University of Ghana Faculty of Law, Kuenyehia became a senior lecturer in 1985 and an associate professor in 1996. In 1996, she became the first woman to be appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Law, a position she occupied until 2003. In 2001, she became the acting director of the Ghana School of Law. In 2013, she was inducted as the President of Mountcrest University College, a private university in Accra, Ghana. Kuenyehia has also occupied visiting academic positions in institutions outside Ghana, including Temple University, Imo State University, Northwestern University, Leiden University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Her research is mainly focused on human rights, international law, and gender. The highlight of Kuenyehia’s legal career is her pioneering role in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where she served as a judge from 2003 to 2015. Not only was she one of the eighteen judges elected by the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), she was also one of three African women elected to the ICC at its initial formation. She also became the first vice president of the ICC from 2003 to 2009, playing a pivotal administrative role during the formative stages of the court.

Fatoumata Dembele Diarra

International Criminal Court (ICC)

MALI

Fatoumata Diarra was born on February 15, 1949, at Koulikoro in Mali. She holds a certificat de licence en droit (LLB) from the University of Dakar (1971), a maîtrise en droit privé (LLM in private law) from the Mali École Nationale d'Administration (French National College of Public Administration) (1973) as well as a diploma in Implementation of Regional and International Standards for the Protection of Human Rights. She is also a graduate of the École Nationale de la Magistrature (French National School for the Judiciary).

Fatoumata began her legal career as an Examining Magistrate and then became Deputy Public Prosecutor. She was subsequently appointed as National Director for the Administration of Justice in Mali from 1999 until August 2001. Other positions occupied by Diarra throughout her local career are President of the Criminal Chamber and Chamber of Assize of the Court of Appeal of Bamako and judge of the Constitutional Court in Mali. She is currently the President of the Council of the Université des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques de Bamako.

In 2001, she was elected ad litem judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) where she served for two years. She was subsequently appointed judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where she served as the First Vice-President of the Court between 2009 and 2012. She further worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross on humanitarian law and with the Agence de la Francophonie (Agency for the Francophone World) within the framework of the Preparatory Committee on the draft Rules of Procedure and Evidence and on the definition of the Elements of Crimes which fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Judge Diara is recognized as the founder of several organizations including the Pro Bono Center for women and children in Mali, Association des femmes jurists which she founded in 1976, the Office on Relief for Impoverished Women and Children, and the Women's and Children's Rights Monitoring Body (Observatoire des droits de la femme et de l'enfant). Again, she was the Vice-President of the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers (IFWLC).

Joyce Aluoch

International Criminal Court (ICC)

KENYA

Joyce Aluoch is a Kenyan judge who served as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2009 to 2018. Aluoch attended Butere Girls’ School for her Ordinary Level Certificate, and Limuru Girls’ School for her Higher School Certificate. She received her Law Degree from the University of Nairobi, a diploma in Legal Studies from the Kenya School of Law, and a Master’s degree in International Relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

In 1974, Justice Aluoch was appointed a District Magistrate II, where she oversaw several trials convicting rebels after a coup attempt took place in Kenya. In 1993, Justice Aluoch was appointed a judge of the Kenyan High Court, where she eventually moved up to become a Senior Judge of the Court and handled cases related to family, commercial, criminal, and civil law. She also became inaugural head of the Family Division of the High Court, where she pushed for fair, timely, and affordable justice.

Justice Aluoch was elected as Vice-Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2003, after serving as the Chairperson of the African Union Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2001. At the African Union Committee, she had been involved in negotiations made on behalf of the African Union, and undertaking missions that gathered information on the rights of children in certain regions. At the UN Committee, she worked towards the implementation of the new Sexual Offences Act of 2006.

Justice Aluoch was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2007, only to be elected to the ICC in 2009. There, she served as a member of the trial division, and later as First Vice President of the Court. Justice Aluoch has received training in Humanitarian Law and was trained in Human Rights Law through the Jurisprudence in Equality Programme, run by the International Association of Women Judges in partnership with the Kenya Women Judges’ Association.

Miatta Maria Samba

International Criminal Court (ICC)

SIERRA LEONE

Miatta Samba is a Sierra Leonean judge who was elected to the bench of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2020. She holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, and Master of Laws degrees from Centre for Human Rights, the University of Pretoria in South Africa and Centre for Petroleum Law and Policy, the University of Dundee in Scotland. Miatta was called to the bar in Sierra Leone in 1999 and from 2002 to 2006 she worked as an Investigator, Prosecution Witness Management Coordinator, and Associate Prosecutor at the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Miatta Samba worked in various capacities between 2006 and 2015; as a member of a sub-committee of the Sierra Leone Law Reform Commission that focused on gender law reform, Senior Prosecutor at the Anti-Corruption Commission, and Commissioner on the Commission of Inquiry established to investigate the untimely death of the then Chief Immigration Officer, Ms. Gloria Newman Smart. She was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2019 and a year after was appointed as a judge of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Between 2006 and 2010, Miatta served as a Field Operations Officer for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) assigned to the Uganda Field Office. Her mandate in this position was to protect and promote the rights of witnesses and survivors who were participating in an accountability process in both Sierra Leone and Uganda. Judge Samba is a lecturer at the University of Sierra Leone. A position she has occupied since 2003. She is a member of Legal Access Through Women Yearning for Equal Rights and Social Justice, the leading gender equality advocacy organization in Sierra Leone and the chair of the Legal Aid Board. She is recognized for rendering judgments that have significantly contributed to accountability for sexual and gender- based violence.

Arlette Ramaroson

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

MADAGASCAR

Arlette Ramaroson was born on August 14, 1944, in Diego Suarez, Madagascar. She obtained a Bachelor's degree in Law in 1973 and a Diploma from the Institute of Legal Studies a year after. Judge Ramaroson began her legal career as a Deputy State Prosecutor for Diego Suarez in 1974 and was appointed Examining magistrate and a judge of the Criminal Court of Antananarivo in 1975. Three years after serving in this capacity, she was appointed Vice-president of the court. In 1986, she was promoted to the Court of Appeal of Antananarivo and became President of the Criminal Division of that Court two years later. Judge Ramaroson was elected a member of the governing body of the Supreme Court and Acting President of the Supreme Court Criminal Division in 1990.

Her exceptional leadership skills led to her appointment as Director of International Relations in the Ministry of Justice, Madagascar in 1998. A year after serving in this role, she was elected Commissioner of Human Rights by Presidential decree. In addition to her judicial responsibilities, Ramasoron teaches civil and criminal law at the University of Madagascar.

Judge Ramaroson’s international career commenced with her appointment as a member of the preparatory committee on the establishment of an International Criminal Court in New York sometime in 1997. She was further elected as a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Arusha, Tanzania in 2001. Again, from 2005 to 2006, she occupied the position of Vice President of the tribunal and continued to serve the tribunal after her tenure as Vice President until 2011. Judge Ramaroson then joined the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in October 2011, serving until 2015. Outside judicial circles, Ramaroson is religious and is known to have co-founded the Pan-African Christian Women's Alliance (PACWA) in Madagascar.

Andresia Vaz

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

SENEGAL

Andrésia Vaz was born on February 4, 1944, in Senegal. She graduated from the National Centre for Law Studies (Centre National d'Etudes juridiques) in France in 1969. Andresia began her career as an Examining Judge of the Tribunal de Première Instance de Dakar. She was subsequently appointed President of the Labour Tribunal in Saint Louis, Senegal, and later Chief of the Examining Judges in Dakar as well as Vice President of the Tribunal de Première Instance de Dakar. Andrezia was also a junior lecturer at the Senegalese National School of Administration and Magistracy until 1991. Judge Vaz was further promoted to the Court of Appeal and became the President of the Court in 1992. A year later she was appointed President of the National Electoral Commission of Senegal and in 1997 she became the first President of the Supreme Court of Senegal.

In 2001 Judge Vaz was elected by the United Nations General Assembly as a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. She was re-elected in February 2003 and became Vice President of the Tribunal. Vaz was a member of the Appeals Chamber which is common to both the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands. She ended her tenure with the Tribunal in May 2013.

Throughout her career, Judge Vaz has participated in several conferences, including the Conference of Chief Judges of the Commonwealth and Judges of Appeal Courts, and the International Federation of Women Lawyers’ “World Peace Through the Law” conference. She is a member of the International Union of Magistrates, the International Commission of Jurists (Associate Member), and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.

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